Alain de Botton Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• Out of the millions of people we live among, most of whom we habitually ignore and are ignored by in turn, there are always a few that hold hostage our capacity for happiness, whom we could recognize by their smell alone and whom we would rather die than be without.

  Alain de Botton

  Smell, People, Ignored

  62 Copy quote

• A virtuous, ordinary life, striving for wisdom but never far from folly, is achievement enough.

  Alain de Botton

  Achievement, Ordinary, Enough

  "The Consolations of Philosophy". Book by Alain de Botton, Chapter IV, Consolation For Inadequacy, 2000.

  9 Copy quote

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

  Alain de Botton

  Self, Years, Careers

  Twitter post from Apr 09, 2014

  34 Copy quote

• Envy: a confused, tangled guide to one's own ambitions.

  Alain de Botton

  Confused, Ambition, Envy

  Twitter post from Sep 15, 2013

  19 Copy quote

• There is always the option of being emotionally lazy, that is, of quoting.

  Alain de Botton

  Lazy, Sloth, Quoting

  Alain De Botton (1993). “Essays in Love”

  8 Copy quote

• We should not feel embarrassed by our difficulties, only by our failure to grow anything beautiful from them.

  Alain de Botton

  Beautiful, Should, Embarrassed

  "The Consolations of Philosophy". Book by Alain de Botton, Chapter VI, Consolation For Difficulties, 2000.

  16 Copy quote

• The most unbearable thing about many successful people is not - as we flatteringly think - how lazy they are, but how hard they work.

  Alain de Botton

  Successful, Thinking, People

  Twitter post from Jul 08, 2013

  7 Copy quote

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

  Alain de Botton

  Inspirational, Obvious Things, Too Late

  10 Copy quote

• It is by finding out what something is not that one comes closest to understanding what it is.

  Alain de Botton

  Understanding, Findings, Closest

  "The Consolations of Philosophy". Book by Alain de Botton, 2000.

  16 Copy quote

• Literature deserves its prestige for one reason above all others - because it's a tool to help us live and die with a little bit more wisdom, goodness, and sanity.

  Alain de Botton

  Tools, Literature, Littles

  15 Copy quote

• There may be significant things to learn about people by looking at what annoys them most.

  Alain de Botton

  Significant Things, People, May

  Alain de Botton (2012). “How Proust Can Change Your Life”, p.94, Pan Macmillan

  9 Copy quote

• Dreams reveal we never quite get 'over' anything: it's all still in there somewhere.

  Alain de Botton

  Dream, Get Over, Stills

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• Once I began to consider everything as being of potential interest, objects released latent layers of value.

  Alain de Botton

  Layers, Interest, Latent

  Alain De Botton (2008). “The Art of Travel”, p.225, Vintage

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

  Alain de Botton

  Hopeful, Angry, Cease

  "The Consolations of Philosophy". Book by Alain de Botton, Chapter III, Consolation For Frustration, 2000.

  6 Copy quote

• The challenge of modern relationships: how to prove more interesting than the other's smartphone.

  Alain de Botton

  Smartphones, Interesting, Challenges

  Twitter post from Jan 05, 2013

  8 Copy quote

• One kind of good book should leave you asking: how did the author know that about me?

  Alain de Botton

  Book, Asking, Kind

  Twitter post from Apr 27, 2015

  9 Copy quote

• The telephone becomes an instrument of torture in the demonic hands of a beloved who doesn't call.

  Alain de Botton

  Hands, Telephones, Beloved

  Alain de Botton (2015). “On Love: A Novel”, p.20, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  7 Copy quote

• Life seems to be a process of replacing one anxiety with another and substituting one desire for another--which is not to say that we should never strive to overcome any of our anxieties or fulfil any of our desires, but rather to suggest that we should perhaps build into our strivings an awareness of the way our goals promise us a respite and a resolution that they cannot, by definition, deliver.

  Alain de Botton

  Goal, Anxiety, Promise

  Alain De Botton (2008). “Status Anxiety”, p.197, Vintage

  15 Copy quote

• The largest part of what we call 'personality' is determined by how we've opted to defend ourselves against anxiety and sadness".

  Alain de Botton

  Sadness, Worry, Personality

  41 Copy quote

• Writing isn’t a career choice. It’s self-medication that over time precipitates the madness it was meant to ward off.

  Alain de Botton

  Writing, Self, Careers

  Twitter post from May 28, 2013

  9 Copy quote

• Our sadness won’t be of the searing kind but more like a blend of joy and melancholy: joy at the perfection we see before us, melancholy at an awareness of how seldom we are sufficiently blessed to encounter anything of its kind. The flawless object throws into perspective the mediocrity that surrounds it. We are reminded of the way we would wish things always to be and of how incomplete our lives remain.

  Alain de Botton

  Blessed, Sadness, Perspective

  43 Copy quote

• The greatest works of art speak to us without knowing us.

  Alain de Botton

  Art, Knowing, Speak

  "The Consolations of Philosophy". Book by Alain de Botton, 2000.

  6 Copy quote

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

  Alain de Botton

  People, Personality, Needs

  12 Copy quote

• What we seek, at the deepest level, is inwardly to resemble, rather than physically to possess, the objects and places that touch us through their beauty.

  Alain de Botton

  Levels, Objects

  "The Architecture of Happiness". Book by Alain de Botton, September, 2006.

  7 Copy quote

• Our responses to the world are crucially moulded by the company we keep, for we temper our curiosity to fit in with the expectations of others.

  Alain de Botton

  Friendship, Travel, Company We Keep

  13 Copy quote

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