Alain de Botton Quotes, Motivation Quotes, Inspiration Quotes

It's perhaps easier now than ever before to make a good living; it's perhaps harder than ever before to stay calm, to be free of career anxiety.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Motivation Quotes , Inspiration Quotes

To be shown love is to feel ourselves the object of concern: our presence is noted, our name is registered, our views are listened to, our failings are treated with indulgence and our needs are ministered to. And under such care, we flourish.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

Being incomprehensible offers unparalleled protection against having nothing to say...but writing with simplicity requires courage, for there is a danger that one will be overlooked, dismissed as simpleminded by those with a tenacious belief that the impassable prose is a hallmark of intelligence.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Writing Quotes , Simplicity Quotes

The study of maps and the perusal of travel books aroused in me a secret fascination that was at times almost irresistible.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

A 'good job' can be both practically attractive while still not good enough to devote your entire life to.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

Maturity: the confidence to have no opinions on many things.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Inspiring Quotes , Maturity 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

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.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

It is not necessarily at home that we best encounter our true selves. The furniture insists that we cannot change because it does not; the domestic setting keeps us tethered to the person we are in ordinary life, who may not be who we essentially are.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

Man seems merely dust postponed: the sublime as an encounter - pleasurable, intoxicating, even - with human weakness in the face of strength, age and size of the universe.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

If we are inclined to forget how much there is in the world besides that which we anticipate, then works of art are perhaps a little to blame, for in them we find at work the same process of simplification or selection as in the imagination.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

It would scarcely be acceptable, for example, to ask in the course of an ordinary conversation what our society holds to be the purpose of work.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Ordinary Quotes , Example Quotes

It seems that most of us could benefit from a brush with a near-fatal disaster to help us recognise the important things that we are too defeated or embittered to recognise from day to day.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

Most of us still caged within careers chosen for us by our not entirely worldly 18-22 year old selves.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

In Britain, because I live here, I can also run into problems of envy and competition. But all this is just in a day's work for a writer. You can't put stuff out there without someone calling you a complete fool. Oh, well.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Running Quotes , Writing Quotes

We don't exist unless there is someone who can see us existing, what we say has no meaning until someone can understand, while to be surrounded by friends is constantly to have our identity confirmed; their knowledge and care for us have the power to pull us from our numbness. In small comments, many of them teasing, they reveal they know our foibles and except them and so, in turn, accept that we have a place in the world.

6 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Alain de Botton Quotes , Numbness Quotes , Identity Quotes

.. if you asked most people whether they believed in love or not, they’d probably say they didn’t. Yet that’s not necessarily what they truly think. It’s just the way they defend themselves against what they want. They believe in it, but pretend they don’t until they’re allowed to. Most people would throw away all their cynicism if they could. The majority just never gets the chance.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

Art cannot single-handedly create enthusiasm... it merely contributes to enthusiasm and guides us to be more conscious of feelings that we might previously have experienced only tentatively or hurriedly.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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

We may seek a fortune for no greater reason than to secure the respect and attention of people who would otherwise look straight through us.

6 years ago

Message Copied

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