Alain de Botton Quotes, Beautiful Quotes, Beautiful Things Quotes

It is perhaps when our lives are at their most problematic that we are likely to be most receptive to beautiful things.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

[T]he unsympathetic assessments we make of others are usually the result of nothing more sinister than our habit of looking at them in the wrong way, through lenses clouded by distraction, exhaustion and fear, which blind us to the fact that they are really, despite a thousand differences, just altered versions of ourselves: fellow fragile, uncertain, flawed beings likewise craving love and in urgent need of forgiveness.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Assessment Quotes , Differences Quotes

Most anger stems from feelings of weakness, sadness and fear: hard to remember when one is at the receiving end of its defiant roar.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Sadness Quotes , Feelings Quotes

Though debts are condemned in the financial world, the world of friendship and love may perversely depend on well-managed debts.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Love And Friendship Quotes , And Love Quotes

We fall in love because we long to escape from ourselves with someone as beautiful, intelligent, and witty as we are ugly, stupid, and dull. But what if such a perfect being should one day turn around and decide they will love us back? We can only be somewhat shocked-how can they be as wonderful as we had hoped when they have the bad taste to approve of someone like us?

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to do; the task can be as paralysing as having to tell a joke or mimic an accent on demand.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

The mind does most of its best thinking when we aren't there. The answers are there in the morning.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

It's clear to me that there is no good reason for many philosophy books to sound as complicated as they do.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Philosophy Quotes , Book Quotes

As adults, we try to develop the character traits that would have rescued our parents.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Character Quotes , Parent Quotes

We need objects to remind us of the commitments we've made. That carpet from Morocco reminds us of the impulsive, freedom-loving side of ourselves we're in danger of losing touch with. Beautiful furniture gives us something to live up to. All designed objects are propaganda for a way of life.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

If it is true that love is the pursuit in another of qualities we lack in ourselves, then in our love of someone from another culture, one ambition may be to weld ourselves more closely to values missing from our own culture.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Ambition Quotes , Love Is Quotes

Much of the really serious trouble in the world gets going with a sense of humiliation.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

Rather than saying 'I hate mess', it might draw more compassion to say, 'mess terrifies me as a harbinger of catastrophe'.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Hate Quotes , Compassion Quotes

Paying tax should be framed as a glorious civic duty worthy of gratitude - not a punishment for making money.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Gratitude Quotes , Punishment Quotes

Bad art might be defined as a series of bad choices about what to show and what to leave out.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

We should read other people's books in order to learn what we feel; it is our own thoughts we should be developing, even if it is another writer's thought that help us to do so.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Book Quotes , Order 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.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

Feeling lost, crazy and desperate belongs to a good life as much as optimism, certainty and reason.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Good Life Quotes , Crazy Quotes

To be loved by someone is to realize how much they share the same needs that lie at the heart of our own attraction to them. Albert Camus suggested that we fall in love with people because, from the outside, they look so whole, physically whole and emotionally 'together' - when subjectively we feel dispersed and confused. We would not love if there were no lack within us, but we are offended by the discovery of a similar lack in the other. Expecting to find the answer, we find only the duplicate of our own problem.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Falling In Love Quotes , Lying Quotes

One of the better guarantors of ending up in a good relationship: an advanced capacity to be alone.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Good Relationship Quotes