Alain De Botton Quotes - Page 3

The Anxiety of Sunday afternoon: your unlived lives and infinite possibility pressing upon the constraints of reality.

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.

Art was the very antithesis of crass moralism.

Our sense of what is valuable will hence be radically distorted if we must perpetually condemn as tedious everything we lack, simply because we lack it.

Anyone who isn't embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn't learning enough.

The only people we can think of as normal are those we don't yet know very well.

Our minds are susceptible to the influence of external voices telling us what we require to be satisfied, voices that may drown out the faint sounds emitted by our souls and distract us from the careful, arduous task of accurately naming our priorities.

Whatever modern democracies may tell themselves about their commitment to free speech and to diversity of opinion, the values of a given society will uncannily match those of whichever organizations have the scale to pay for runs of thirty-second slots around the nightly news bulletin.

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

A great writer picks up on those things that matter. It’s almost like their radar is attuned to the most significant moments.

It is difficult when reading the description of certain fictional characters not at the same time to imagine the real-life acquaintances who they most closely, if often unexpectedly, resemble.

One cannot read a novel without ascribing to the heroine the traits of the one we love.

The desire for high status is never stronger than in situations where "ordinary" life fails to answer a median need for dignity and comfort.

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

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

Maturity/experience: the beguiling texture of stones subjected to years of furious seas.

Importance of the random: keep brushing up against people, books, experiences we don't yet know what to do with.

Hoe machtig onze technologie en hoe complex onze ondernemingen ook mogen zijn, het opmerkelijkste kenmerk van onze moderne arbeid is uiteindelijk misschien wel iets wat in onszelf zit, een aspect van onze mentaliteit: de wijdverbreide overtuiging dat ons werk ons gelukkig moet maken.