Alain de Botton Quotes, God Quotes, Spiritual Quotes

It's as though either you accept [religious] doctrine and then you can have all the nice stuff, or you reject the doctrine and you're living in some kind of spiritual wasteland under the guidance of CNN and Walmart.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , God Quotes , Spiritual Quotes

An argument in a couple: 2 people attempting to introduce each other to important truths - by panicked shouting.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Couple Quotes , People Quotes

People who hold important positions in society are commonly labelled "somebodies," and their inverse "nobodies"-both of which are, of course, nonsensical descriptors, for we are all, by necessity, individuals with distinct identities and comparable claims on existence. Such words are nevertheless an apt vehicle for conveying the disparate treatment accorded to different groups. Those without status are all but invisible: they are treated brusquely by others, their complexities trampled upon and their singularities ignored.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , People Quotes , Important Quotes

We will cease to be angry once we cease to be so hopeful.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Hopeful Quotes , Angry Quotes

The desire for high status is never stronger than in situations where "ordinary" life fails to answer a median need for dignity and comfort.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Desire Quotes , Stronger Quotes

Our jobs make relentless calls on a narrow band of our faculties, reducing our chances of achieving rounded personalities and leaving us to suspect (often in the gathering darkness of a Sunday evening) that much of who we are, or could be, has gone unexplored.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Jobs Quotes , Sunday Quotes

Status anxiety definitely exists at a political level. Many Iraqis were annoyed with the US essentially for reasons of status: for not showing them respect, for humiliating them.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Annoyed Quotes , Anxiety Quotes

Do you love me enough that I may be weak with you? Everyone loves strength, but do you love me for my weakness? That is the real test.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Real Quotes , Weakness Quotes

We are certainly influenced by role models, and if we are surrounded by images of beautiful rich people, we will start to think that to be beautiful and rich is very important - just as in the Middle Ages, people were surrounded by images of religious piety.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Beautiful Quotes , Religious Quotes

The degree of sympathy we feel regarding another's fiasco is directly proportional to how easy or difficult it is for us to imagine ourselves, under like circumstances, making a similar mistake.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Mistake Quotes , Degrees Quotes

Socrates, on being insulted in the marketplace, asked by a passerby, "Don't you worry about being called names?" retorted, "Why? Do you think I should resent it if an ass had kicked me?

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Thinking Quotes , Names Quotes

Despite its maddeningly vague, inarticulate form, anxiety is almost always trying to tell you something useful and apposite.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Always Trying Quotes , Anxiety Quotes

People who readily accept the need for a gym will resist that their personalities might need some work too.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , People Quotes , Personality Quotes

What am I supposed to do here? What am I supposed to think?

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes

Status Anxiety: A worry, so pernicious as to be capable of ruining extended stretches of our lives, that we are in danger of failing to conform to the ideals of success laid down by our society and that we may as a result be stripped of dignity and respect; a worry that we are currently occupying too modest a rung or are about to fall to a lower one.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Happiness Quotes , Success Quotes

The greatest difficulty of Travel is that one is forced to take oneself along.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Difficulty Quotes

In a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Art Quotes , World Quotes

The assumption is that life doesn't need to be navigated with lessons. You can just do it intuitively. After all, you only need to achieve autonomy from your parents, find a moderately satisfying job, form a relationship, perhaps raise some children, watch the onset of mortality in your parents' generation and eventually in your own, until one day a fatal illness starts gnawing at your innards and you calmly go to the grave, shut the coffin and are done with the self-evident business of life.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Jobs Quotes , Children Quotes

Choosing a spouse and a choosing career: the two great decisions for which society refuses to set up institutional guidance.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Careers Quotes , Two Quotes

The lesson? To respond to the unexpected and hurtful behavior of others with something more than a wipe of the glasses, to see it as a chance to expand our understanding.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Glasses Quotes , Understanding Quotes