Alain de Botton Quotes, Regret Quotes, Loss Quotes

There is a longing for a return to a time without the need for choices, free of the regret at the inevitable loss that all choice (however wonderful) has entailed.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Regret Quotes , Loss Quotes

There are people who say, 'Oh this guy is quite thick.' I think the reason is that, increasingly, I don't mind being simple in terms of literary expression. Others say, 'No, no, no. He went to Cambridge. He got a good degree. He must be Einstein.'

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Cynics are - beneath it all - only idealists with awkwardly high standards.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , High Standards Quotes , Standards Quotes

It is in books, poems, paintings which often give us the confidence to take seriously feelings in ourselves that we might otherwise never have thought to acknowledge.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

That said, deciding to avoid other people does not necessarily equate with having no desire whatsoever for company; it may simply reflect a dissatisfaction with what—or who—is available. Cynics are, in the end, only idealists with awkwardly high standards. In Chamfort's words, 'It is sometimes said of a man who lives alone that he does not like society. This is like saying of a man that he does not like going for walks because he is not fond of walking at night in the forêt de Bondy.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Night Quotes , Men Quotes

As victims of hurt, we frequently don't bring up what ails us, because so many wounds look absurd in the light of day.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Hurt Quotes , Light Quotes

There is psychological pleasure in this takeoff, too, for the swiftness of the plane’s ascent is an exemplary symbol of transformation. The display of power can inspire us to imagine analogous, decisive shifts in our own lives, to imagine that we, too, might one day surge above much that now looms over us.” P. 38-39

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Inspire Quotes , One Day 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.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

I am in general a very pessimistic person with an optimistic, day to day take on things. The bare facts of life are utterly terrifying. And yet, one can laugh. Indeed, one has to laugh precisely because of the darkness: the nervous laughter of the trenches.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Laughter Quotes , Optimistic Quotes

The attentions of others matter to us because we are afflicted by a congenital uncertainty as to our own value, as a result of which affliction we tend to allow others' appraisals to play a determining role in how we see ourselves. Our sense of identity is held captive by the judgements of those we live among.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Play Quotes , Judgement Quotes

Never too late to learn some embarrassingly basic, stupidly obvious things about oneself.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Inspirational Quotes , Obvious Things Quotes

So many complaints boil down to the belly ache of the fragile, mortal, ignored ego in a vast and indifferent universe.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Ego Quotes , Ignored Quotes

We study biology, physics, movements of glaciers... Where are the classes on envy, feeling wronged, despair, bitterness.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Class Quotes , Envy Quotes

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

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

The very act of drawing an object, however badly, swiftly takes the drawer from a woolly sense of what the object looks like to a precise awareness of its component parts and particularities.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Drawing Quotes , Looks Quotes

A simple problem of arithmetic: there are far more ambitions than there are grand destinies available.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Ambition Quotes , Simple Quotes

No one is able to produce a great work of art without experience, nor achieve a worldly position immediately, nor be a great lover at the first attempt; and in the interval between initial failure and subsequent success, in the gap between who we wish one day to be and who we are at present, must come pain, anxiety, envy and humiliation. We suffer because we cannot spontaneously master the ingredients of fulfillment.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

Alcohol-inspired fights are a reminder of the price we pay for our daily submission at the altars of prudence and order.

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

5 years ago

Message Copied

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

what we call a home is merely any place that succeeds in making more consistenly available to us the important truths which the wider world ignores, or which our distracted and irresolute selves have trouble holding onto." (p123) Architecture of Happiness

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Home Quotes , Self Quotes