Alain de Botton Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

• The fear of saying something stupid (which stupid people never have) has censored far more good ideas than bad ones.

  Alain de Botton

  Stupid, Ideas, People

  Twitter post from Nov 02, 2014

  9 Copy quote

• Art holds out the promise of inner wholeness.

  Alain de Botton

  Art, Promise, Wholeness

  15 Copy quote

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

  Alain de Botton

  Difficulty, Oneself

  9 Copy quote

• We are sensitized by the books we read. And the more books we read, and the deeper their lessons sink into us, the more pairs of glasses we have. And those glasses enable us to see things we would have otherwise missed.

  Alain de Botton

  Book, Glasses, Lessons

  "Alain de Botton: How Proust Can Change Your Life". bigthink.com. 2017.

  7 Copy quote

• Being content is perhaps no less easy than playing the violin well: and requires no less practice.

  Alain de Botton

  Practice, Contentment, Violin

  24 Copy quote

• In the gap between who we wish one day to be
  and who we are at present,
  must come pain, anxiety, envy and humiliation.

  Alain de Botton

  Pain, Envy, Anxiety

  Alain de Botton (2001). “The Consolations of Philosophy”, p.202, Penguin UK

  10 Copy quote

• As we write, so we build: to keep a record of what matters to us.

  Alain de Botton

  Writing, What Matters, Records

  7 Copy quote

• What is fascinating about marriage is why anyone wants to get married.

  Alain de Botton

  Want, Married, Fascinating

  "Office affairs". Interview with Lynn Barber, www.theguardian.com. March 21, 2009.

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Alain de Botton

  Inspire, One Day, Swiftness

  10 Copy quote

• 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.

  Alain de Botton

  Writing, Simplicity, Belief

  5 Copy quote

• Forcing people to eat together is an effective way to promote tolerance.

  Alain de Botton

  Food, People, Tolerance

  "Alain de Botton: 'Forcing people to eat together is an effective way to promote tolerance'". Interview with Carole Cadwalladr, www.theguardian.com. March 17, 2012.

  9 Copy quote

• 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.

  Alain de Botton

  Beautiful, Religious, Thinking

  8 Copy quote

• People who go on to be writers are those who can forgive themselves the horror of the first draft.

  Alain de Botton

  People, Forgiving, Goes On

  Twitter post from Mar 13, 2015

  5 Copy quote

• Must being in love always mean being in pain?

  Alain de Botton

  Pain, Mean, Being In Love

  Alain de Botton (2015). “On Love: A Novel”, p.123, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  15 Copy quote

• 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.

  Alain de Botton

  Play, Judgement, Identity

  Alain De Botton (2008). “Status Anxiety”, p.8, Vintage

  8 Copy quote

• 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?

  Alain de Botton

  Thinking, Names, Worry

  Alain De Botton (2008). “Status Anxiety”, p.112, Vintage

  53 Copy quote

• Rather than getting more spoilt with age, as difficulties pile up, epiphanies of gratitude abound.

  Alain de Botton

  Gratitude, Grateful, Age

  6 Copy quote

• Unhappiness can stem from having only one perspective to play with.

  Alain de Botton

  Happiness, Play, Perspective

  9 Copy quote

• Because the rhythm of conversation makes no allowance for dead periods, because the presence of others calls for continuous responses, we are left to regret the inanity of what we say, and the missed opportunity of what we do not.

  Alain de Botton

  Regret, Opportunity, Allowance

  Alain de Botton (2012). “How Proust Can Change Your Life”, p.123, Pan Macmillan

  7 Copy quote

• Those who divorce aren't necessarily the most unhappy, just those neatly able to believe their misery is caused by one other person.

  Alain de Botton

  Believe, Divorce, Unhappy

  8 Copy quote

• Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than moving planes, ships or trains.

  Alain de Botton

  Moving, Journey, Ships

  Alain de Botton (2003). “The Art of Travel”, p.32, Penguin UK

  12 Copy quote

• 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.

  Alain de Botton

  Important, Benefits, Helping

  Alain de Botton (2010). “A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary”, p.32, Profile Books

  6 Copy quote

• Not everyone is worth listening to.

  Alain de Botton

  Listening

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

  9 Copy quote

• Good sex isn't just fun, it keeps us sane and happy. Having sex with someone makes us feel wanted, alive and potent.

  Alain de Botton

  Happiness, Sex, Fun

  7 Copy quote

• What should worry us is not the number of people that oppose us, but how good their reasons are for doing so.

  Alain de Botton

  Numbers, People, Worry

  Alain de Botton (2001). “The Consolations of Philosophy”, p.33, Penguin UK

  5 Copy quote

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