The solution as consumers is - perhaps surprisingly - to take adverts very, very seriously. We should ask ourselves what it is that we find lovely in them - the visions of friendship, togetherness, repose, or whatever. And then consider what would actually help us find these qualities in our lives.
Alain de Botton
Related Each of us views life through a different lens. What we think is colored by the baggage we carry, an... LAURIE BUCHANAN, PHD Same first name as a president and an obscure comic book character. Half-Jewish. Excellent grammar. ... BECKY ALBERTALLI What we ask of him is, that he should find out for us more than we can find out for ourselves. He mu... ARTHUR SYMONS It's definitely an improvement. They're beginning to ponder their involvement in China. We began to ... LUCIE MORILLON The remarkable position in which we find ourselves is that we don't actually know what we actually k... BILL BRYSON We attribute to ourselves qualities that we do not possess because if we possessed them, our lives w... LAURA KNIGHT JADCZYK We took very seriously our responsibilities with the government. All of us have a very strong belief... JUSTIN RAMSEY Our lives are driven and channeled by our decisions, whatever situation we find ourselves in, we got... ROSE B MASHIGO When we fall in love at a glance, the question we should ask ourselves (and this would apply to both... ROSEMARY SULLIVAN In them we find administrators and teachers and counselors and leaders and protectors. In them we fi... VERONICA ROTH We find it very helpful to analyze what the customer is actually doing, and what problems they have.... ANDREW ANAGNOST Most of us go through each day looking for what we saw yesterday And, not surprisingly, that is what... JAMES A. KITCHENS How do you know if something is real? That’s easy. Does it change you? Does it form you? Does it g... C. JOYBELL C. It is what it is, it is what you make it. JAMES DURBIN When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it... HENRI NOUWEN When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it ... HENRI NOUWEN When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most us, we often find that it is... HENRI NOUWEN But we can also ask for something we are much more likely to get, and that is to find a person or tw... LEMONY SNICKET We need to see, and agree that what we seek already lives within us, and we within it. Now we know o... GUY FINLEY If the control tire is adopted, Michelin would seriously consider withdrawing from F1 competition, .... EDOUARD MICHELIN It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously. PETER USTINOV Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask... NORMAN MACLEAN The question is what is our solution? Ideally we can find some new technology that can take care of ... TODD APO We are humiliated by what is powerful and mean, but awed by what is powerful and noble. ALAIN DE BOTTON We have to be prepared to help find jobs, to help find housing, and to do whatever it is that we nee... JACK JONES You do not know how much they mean to me, my friends, and how, how rare and strange it is, to find i... T.S. ELIOT You do not know how much they mean to me, my friends, and how, how rare and strange it is, to find i... T.S. ELIOT No one should ever ask themselves that: why am I unhappy? The question carries within it the virus t... PAULO COELHO The safety of the athletes and fans is something we take very seriously. If that's what they feel ne... BUD LEGG I just think we need to find a way, because we don't dispose of them very well; they have very b... ANN MAKOSINSKI It is necessary to help others, not only in our prayers, but in our daily lives. If we find we canno... DALAI LAMA Every new star that is found in the sky will lend of its rays to the passions, and thoughts, and the... MAURICE MAETERLINCK The words you can’t find, you borrow. We read to know we’re not alone. We read because w... GABRIELLE ZEVIN In every passing moment that is not appreciated time cannot give it back to you. So in moments of id... GARY F EVANS... I believe that we carry within us a divinely inspired moral imperative to love ... We have within us... DEAN KOONTZ We take these very seriously because it is upsetting to all of us within recruiting command, because... DOUGLASS SMITH One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a wa... JEAN VANIER Ques eso? Queso? NOLAN J. VANDER HAAGEN Most of us are not raised to actively encounter our destiny. We may not know that we have one. As ch... JULIA CAMERON Basically, what we are trying to do is help clients that are having a hard time finding these types ... KATRINA MITCHELL When we are kids, we imagine that to define ourselves or to find ourselves means charting your own i... PICO IYER What love is it, then, that has no need of words to call us? In whose image are we made, to take suc... CHRISTIAN BOBIN You will notice that what we are aiming at when we fall in love is a very strange paradox. The parad... WOODY ALLEN It really is something ... that men disapprove even of our doing things that are patently good. Woul... MODERATA FONTE Isn't friendship amazing? At one time, our friends were just strangers to us. However, there was som... JAMES A. MURPHY I regret that I wasn't more successful with my marriages, but it is what it is. TED TURNER Everything we know by heart enriches us and helps us find ourselves. If it should get in the way of ... NADIA BOULANGER Nothing is lost that we do not first see as lost. Visions born of fear give birth to our failing. TERRY BROOKS There are moments of heartache and heartbreak, that we wonder how we did not drop dead in our pain. ... MISHI MCCOY We know very little about what happens to Belugas in the wild, and it's only through aquariums like ... CLINT WRIGHT Thus, when we plead for the gift of charity, we aren't asking for lovely feelings toward someone who... SHERI DEW Heaven is what we spend our lives trying to find. BETH ORTON If we find a migratory bird that's positive, what we would do is ... look for commercial operations,... ANDREA MORGAN To stand on the brink of what is coming, feeling eager, optimistic anticipation—with no feeli... ASK AND IT IS GIVEN When we try to find the good in ourselves and others, we pull those good traits up out of hiding and... EMILYANN GIRDNER With '10,000,' our aim was to make a film that was entertaining and a roller-coaster ride; i... STEVEN STRAIT We know only that we are living in these bodies and have a vague idea, because we have heard it, and... TERESA OF AVILA The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they fi... EUDORA WELTY The search for a God of our own understanding is one of the most important efforts we will undertake... NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS We started as social workers and wanted to be in a caring profession and then we did all these other... MELINDA BLANCHARD I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made ... RALPH WALDO EMERSON We try to grab pieces of our lives as they speed past us. Photographs freeze those pieces and help u... GENE MCSWEENEY I think what we have here now is a very significant set of rules, ... I think the Commission has mad... ANNETTE NAZARETH we live in a disconcerting world. Trying to comprehend what we see around us, we ask ourselves: what... RAFAEL ÁBALOS Maybe our mistakes are what make our fate. Without them, what would shape our lives? Perhaps, if we ... MICHAEL PATRICK KING Unconsciously we all have a standard by which we measure other men, and if we examine closely we fin... MARK TWAIN We find nothing easier than being wise, patient, superior. We drip with the oil of forbearance and s... FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE We are well aware of the valuable support we receive from our communities as the airport continues t... STEPHEN BAXTER Coming into the year we didn't know what Kelly would give us. What we did find out very quickly was ... PATRICK KNAPP As we manage the hustle and bustle of our busy lives, finding opportunities to quietly be with ourse... JENNY DOH A man must find time for himself. Time is what we spend our lives with. If we are not careful we fin... CARL SANDBURG Europe is very close to what you would find in the U.S. If you're going to a very small town in Amer... CAROL MICKELSEN We may explore the universe and find ourselves, or we may explore ourselves and find the universe. I... DIANA ROBINSON If the United States wants to get involved in guerrilla warfare around the world, we ought to ask ou... PATRICK LEAHY We are evaluating our options We haven't decided what to do yet. We take the privacy of our customer... AMANDA PIRES And if We please, We should certainly take away that which We have revealed to you, then you would n... QURAN The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not t... THOMAS MERTON It is us in the clinic who see the heartbreak, and we cannot help these people when they are running... SUSAN BEWLEY The privacy of our customers' information is something that we take very seriously. AMANDA PIRES We find what we expect to find, and we receive what we ask for. ELBERT HUBBARD Then, in that peace of the present moment we can find divinity in ourselves and in all around us. JODI AMAN There are two ways things are going to happen. There will be professional courtesy that says, 'There... JEFF BURKE In life nowadays it matters to most of us, what we do and how much we have in our lives.... However ... JONATHAN ANTHONY BURKETT We have been trying to find various solutions for these Palestinians and are now very grateful that ... RADHOUANE NOUICER Commemoration of Thomas Merton, Monk, Spiritual Writer, 1968 Our knowledge of God is paradoxica... THOMAS MERTON One way or another, we all have to find what best fosters the flowering of our humanity in this cont... JOSEPH CAMPBELL Fake it may be, lies and deceptions, but this is the world in which we find ourselves, and here we m... IAN MCDONALD It is very important for us to get the community involved in suicide prevention. Eighty percent don'... CANDICE WIGGUM This is something we take very seriously. Nothing is more important to us than the privacy of our cu... MARK SIEGEL Thoughtless, dilettante or purblind wordlings sometimes ask us "What is it that Britain and France a... WINSTON CHURCHILL I don't know what we would do. I think we would find some kind of other alternative to ensure their ... KAREN MCGRIFF What we mean when we say that something is "cultural" is that it is roughly similar to what we find ... PASCAL BOYER Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open o... POPE BENEDICT XVI We would take that very seriously. LT. COL. PAMELA HART What do you care about deeply? What would you dedicate your life to if you could? What would you die... DEREK RYDALL I think of myself as a very ordinary person. I like writing about the juxtaposition between people: ... RACHEL JOYCE It was pivotal in making you but you don't remember it. Or do you? Do we understand the events that ... DOUGLAS COUPLAND We all have our problems and we are working to find a solution to ours and also to help the eurozone... MARIANO RAJOY If we are not willing to wake up in the morning and die to ourselves, perhaps we should ask ourselve... DONALD MILLER What we find is that our brains have colossal things happening in them all the time. DAVID EAGLEMAN
More Alain de Botton
Pick up any newspaper or magazine, open the TV, and you'll be bombarded with suggestions of how ... ALAIN DE BOTTON Atheism is having a heyday in the born-again United States. ALAIN DE BOTTON What bothers me is that there is so much emphasis on food, rather than gathering and meeting - so th... ALAIN DE BOTTON Though it may feel otherwise, enjoying life is no more dangerous than apprehending it with continuou... ALAIN DE BOTTON One rarely falls in love without being as much attracted to what is interestingly wrong with someone... ALAIN DE BOTTON We read the weird tales in newspapers to crowd out the even weirder stuff inside us. ALAIN DE BOTTON There's a whole category of people who miss out by not allowing themselves to be weird enough. ALAIN DE BOTTON Intimacy is the capacity to be rather weird with someone - and finding that that's ok with them. ALAIN DE BOTTON The more familiar two people become, the more the language they speak together departs from that of ... ALAIN DE BOTTON ...if the beginnings of love and amorous politics are equally rosy, then the ends may be equally blo... ALAIN DE BOTTON In the works of Lucretius, we find two reasons why we shouldn ALAIN DE BOTTON The longing for a destiny is no nowhere stronger than in our romantic life. All too often forced to ... ALAIN DE BOTTON He did not mean to depress us, rather to free us from expectations which inspire bitterness. It is c... ALAIN DE BOTTON At the top of the slope on the perimeter of the site, overlooking six lanes of motorway, is a diner ... ALAIN DE BOTTON I was an incredibly lonely, very alienated teenager. ALAIN DE BOTTON I am not a foodie, thank goodness. I will eat pretty much anything. A lot of my friends are getting ... ALAIN DE BOTTON There is militaristic-hegemonic-plutocratic side of the U.S. which is getting out of hand and threat... ALAIN DE BOTTON It's almost a blessing when we meet people who naturally want to do the sort of things that are ... ALAIN DE BOTTON It's very hard to respect people on holiday - everybody looks so silly at the beach, it makes yo... ALAIN DE BOTTON Small issues are really just large ones that haven't been accorded the requisite attention. ALAIN DE BOTTON Fantasies can be great, but we shouldn't make the wedding a fantasy, because the wedding is the ... ALAIN DE BOTTON Most of the time, we make discoveries about how difficult people are at the moment when the difficul... ALAIN DE BOTTON The thing is that love gives us a ringside seat on somebody else's flaws, so of course you'r... ALAIN DE BOTTON I'm one of those introverted people who simply feels a lot better after spending time alone thin... ALAIN DE BOTTON My dad was a slightly stricter version of Richard Dawkins. The worldview was that there are idiots o... ALAIN DE BOTTON Laughter is an important part of a good relationship. It's an immense achievement when you can m... 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ALAIN DE BOTTON The humanities have been forced to disguise, both from themselves and their students, why their subj... ALAIN DE BOTTON I assemble my ideas in pieces on a computer file, then gradually find a place for them on a piece of... ALAIN DE BOTTON Sometimes my biography is interpreted as the upbringing of a French aristocrat. It was very, very di... ALAIN DE BOTTON Cynics are - beneath it all - only idealists with awkwardly high standards. ALAIN DE BOTTON The more people you have to ask for permission, the more dangerous a project gets. ALAIN DE BOTTON What annoys me about most self-help books is that they have no tragic sense. They have no sense that... ALAIN DE BOTTON The arrogance that says analysing the relationship between reasons and causes is more important than... ALAIN DE BOTTON I passionately believe that's it's not just what you say that counts, it's also how you ... ALAIN DE BOTTON Forgiveness requires a sense that bad behaviour is a sign of suffering rather than malice. ALAIN DE BOTTON The start receives such disproportionate attention because it isn't deemed to be just one phase amon... ALAIN DE BOTTON Feeling lost, crazy and desperate belongs to a good life as much as optimism, certainty and reason. ALAIN DE BOTTON If you are pro love, you have to be a little bit disloyal to the romantic feelings that propel you i... ALAIN DE BOTTON The number one person who needs my books is me. I'm not some sort of disinterested guru who has ... ALAIN DE BOTTON Parents become very good at not hearing the explicit words and listening instead to what the child m... ALAIN DE BOTTON Secular thinkers have a separation between thinking and doing. They don't have a grasp of the ba... ALAIN DE BOTTON The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel t... 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ALAIN DE BOTTON As for despair, it comes about when I have been a fool and hate myself and despair of my personality... ALAIN DE BOTTON Therapy and counseling can do wonderful things for people. But they have emerged so far as what are ... ALAIN DE BOTTON The idea that one might use art for 'instrumental' reasons tends to set off alarm bells at t... ALAIN DE BOTTON We are never through with the requirement for acceptance. This isn't a curse limited to the inadequa... ALAIN DE BOTTON Status anxiety definitely exists at a political level. Many Iraqis were annoyed with the US essentia... ALAIN DE BOTTON I passionately believe that's it's not just what you say that counts, it's also how you say it - tha... ALAIN DE BOTTON I am in general a very pessimistic person with an optimistic, day-to-day take on things. The bare fa... ALAIN DE BOTTON We are certainly influenced by role models, and if we are surrounded by images of beautiful rich peo... ALAIN DE BOTTON The Arab-Israeli conflict is also in many ways a conflict about status: it's a war between two p... ALAIN DE BOTTON Getting to the top has an unfortunate tendency to persuade people that the system is OK after all. ALAIN DE BOTTON Katie Price is no exception. She, too, is - in a distinctive way - a philosopher. Partially, Katie P... ALAIN DE BOTTON Used to do a lot of falling in love with people, almost in the street, and imagining that there woul... ALAIN DE BOTTON Le Corbusier is an outstanding writer. His ideas achieved their impact in large measure because he c... ALAIN DE BOTTON Since the beginning of the 20th century, the public's relationship to art has been weakened by a... ALAIN DE BOTTON There's a certain kind of insular, old-fashioned, upper-class Britishness that gives me the spoo... ALAIN DE BOTTON After Carol had left, as Symons threw away a pile of used tissues and rearranged the cushions on the... 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ALAIN DE BOTTON What we typically call love is only the start of love. Our understanding of love has been hijacked a... ALAIN DE BOTTON On account of its scale and complexity, the world will always outstrip the capacity of any single bo... ALAIN DE BOTTON Kant and Hegel are interesting thinkers. But I am happy to insist that they are also terrible writer... ALAIN DE BOTTON Emotional life is - alongside work - one of the great challenges of existence and is a theme that I ... ALAIN DE BOTTON The most attractive are not those who allow us to kiss them at once (we soon feel ungrateful) or tho... ALAIN DE BOTTON Booksellers are the most valuable destination for the lonely, given the numbers of books that were w... ALAIN DE BOTTON There are few more effective ways to promote tolerance between suspicious neighbours than to force t... ALAIN DE BOTTON There's a constant tension between the excitement of new people and security with one person. If... ALAIN DE BOTTON We are all more intelligent than we are capable, and awareness of the insanity of love has never sav... ALAIN DE BOTTON There is no one more likely to destroy us than the person we marry. ALAIN DE BOTTON The challenge lies in knowing how to bring this sort of day to a close. His mind has been wound to a... ALAIN DE BOTTON Many people in the intellectual elite are very scared of shouting. They insist on very quiet murmurs... ALAIN DE BOTTON as the determinants of high status keep shifting, so, too, naturally, will the triggers of status an... ALAIN DE BOTTON Far from rejecting outright any hierarchy of success or failure, philosophy instead reconfigures the... ALAIN DE BOTTON It is according to how we are able to answer the question of what we do (normally the first enquiry ... ALAIN DE BOTTON Philosophy, art, politics, religion and bohemia have never sought to do away entirely with the statu... ALAIN DE BOTTON People who hold important positions in society are commonly labelled "somebodies," and their inverse... ALAIN DE BOTTON The desire for high status is never stronger than in situations where "ordinary" life fails to answe... ALAIN DE BOTTON There is a danger of developing a blanket distaste for modern life which could have its attractions ... ALAIN DE BOTTON Anyone who isn't embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn't learning enough. ALAIN DE BOTTON Most of what makes a book 'good' is that we are reading it at the right moment for us. ALAIN DE BOTTON A 'good job' can be both practically attractive while still not good enough to devote your entire li... ALAIN DE BOTTON There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life. ALAIN DE BOTTON When does a job feel meaningful? Whenever it allows us to generate delight or reduce suffering in ot... ALAIN DE BOTTON One's doing well if age improves even slightly one's capacity to hold on to that vital truism: "This... ALAIN DE BOTTON A good half of the art of living is resilience. ALAIN DE BOTTON ...workplace dynamics are no less complicated or unexpectedly intense than family relations, with on... ALAIN DE BOTTON We are humiliated by what is powerful and mean, but awed by what is powerful and noble. ALAIN DE BOTTON Literature has always had its circus side, its freaks and its frivolities - and maybe that's all par... ALAIN DE BOTTON I love the idea of a university as away from capitalist values, where people can do things that don&... ALAIN DE BOTTON What makes the prospect of death distinctive in the modern age is the background of permanent techno... ALAIN DE BOTTON It seems, in fact, that the more advanced a society is, the greater will be its interest in ruined t... ALAIN DE BOTTON It is one of the unexpected disasters of the modern age that our new unparalleled access to informat... ALAIN DE BOTTON In a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion. ALAIN DE BOTTON Blind impatience is equally evident in the fruit section. Our ancestors might have delighted in the ... ALAIN DE BOTTON Bitterness: anger that forgot where it came from. ALAIN DE BOTTON Only as we mature does affection begin to depend on achievement. ALAIN DE BOTTON Don't despair: despair suggests you are in total control and know what is coming. You don't - surren... ALAIN DE BOTTON We are continuously challenged to discover new works of culture—and, in the process, we don’t al... ALAIN DE BOTTON We may seek a fortune for no greater reason than to secure the respect and attention of people who w... ALAIN DE BOTTON In Britain, because I live here, I can also run into problems of envy and competition. But all this ... ALAIN DE BOTTON Snobbery exists in all areas of life, not least literary criticism. By snobbery I mean, any method o... ALAIN DE BOTTON Pick up any newspaper or magazine, open the TV, and you'll be bombarded with suggestions of how to h... ALAIN DE BOTTON It is the most ambitious and driven among us who are the most sorely in need of having our reckless ... ALAIN DE BOTTON I've tried to write about Heathrow before and been escorted off the premises. ALAIN DE BOTTON Because I have this thing about birthdays--they always remind me of death and forced jollity. ALAIN DE BOTTON He was a volatile mixture of confidence and vulnerability. He could deliver extended monologues on p... ALAIN DE BOTTON The feeling one has no time to get anything done provides the pressure that guarantees one does get ... ALAIN DE BOTTON I'm fascinated by Comte's clear-eyed analysis of what was wrong with modern society, which i... ALAIN DE BOTTON The largest part of what we call 'personality' is determined by how we've opted to defend ourselves ... ALAIN DE BOTTON It is in dialogue with pain that many beautiful things acquire their value. Acquaintance with grief ... ALAIN DE BOTTON The most courageous act in politics is to try to understand your opponent. ALAIN DE BOTTON The idea of a book that can make a change to your life, that can affect your perspective, is a beaut... ALAIN DE BOTTON The philosophy I love is very selective. It is really just the bit that is involved in a search for ... ALAIN DE BOTTON It is hope--with regard to our careers, our love lives, our children, our politicians, and our plane... ALAIN DE BOTTON I learnt to stop fantasising about the perfect job or the perfect relationship because that can actu... ALAIN DE BOTTON He was marked out by his relentless ability to find fault with others' mediocrity--suggesting that a... ALAIN DE BOTTON There are books that speak to us of our own lives with a clarity we cannot match. They prevent the m... ALAIN DE BOTTON On paper, being good sounds great but a lot depends on the atmosphere of the workplace or community ... ALAIN DE BOTTON Travel is a lot like love. ALAIN DE BOTTON What is fascinating about marriage is why anyone wants to get married. ALAIN DE BOTTON I feel that the great challenge of our time is the communication of ideas. ALAIN DE BOTTON Learning to give up on perfection may be just about the most romantic move any of us could make. ALAIN DE BOTTON Work is a way of bringing order to chaos, and there's a basic satisfaction in seeing that we are... ALAIN DE BOTTON I like working with people. I believe change can only come through collaboration. ALAIN DE BOTTON I see religion as a storehouse of lots of really good ideas that a secular world should look at, rai... ALAIN DE BOTTON Rather than getting more spoilt with age, as difficulties pile up, epiphanies of gratitude abound. ALAIN DE BOTTON For the rest of history, for most of us, our bright promise will always fall short of being actualis... ALAIN DE BOTTON In 'Art as Therapy', we argue that art is a tool that can variously help to inspire, console... ALAIN DE BOTTON I was a very un-literary child, which might reassure parents with kids who don't read. ALAIN DE BOTTON In our more arrogant moments, the sin of pride—or superbia, in Augustine's Latin formulation—tak... ALAIN DE BOTTON Partially undermining the manufacturer's ability to assert that its work constituted a meaningful co... ALAIN DE BOTTON Pegging your contentment to the overall state of the world rather than of your own life: the basis o... ALAIN DE BOTTON We don't need to be constantly reasonable in order to have good relationships; all we need to have m... ALAIN DE BOTTON To look at the paper is to raise a seashell to one's ear and to be overwhelmed by the roar of humani... ALAIN DE BOTTON I think of myself as quite a shy person. But when I'm curious about something, I'll go quite... ALAIN DE BOTTON Artworks are especially good at helping our psyches in a variety of ways: they rebalance our moods, ... ALAIN DE BOTTON [T]he unsympathetic assessments we make of others are usually the result of nothing more sinister th... ALAIN DE BOTTON It is not only the hostility of others that may prevent us from questioning the status quo. Our will... ALAIN DE BOTTON The most boring and unproductive question one can ask of any religion is whether or not it is true. ALAIN DE BOTTON Whatever modern democracies may tell themselves about their commitment to free speech and to diversi... ALAIN DE BOTTON The true nature of bureaucracy may be nowhere more obvious to the observer than in a developing coun... ALAIN DE BOTTON To be loved by someone is to realize how much they share the same needs that lie at the heart of our... ALAIN DE BOTTON We fall in love because we long to escape from ourselves with someone as beautiful, intelligent, and... ALAIN DE BOTTON Being content is perhaps no less easy than playing the violin well: and requires no less practice. ALAIN DE BOTTON A storyteller who provided us with such a profusion of details would rapidly grow maddening. Unfortu... ALAIN DE BOTTON We used to build temples, and museums are about as close as secular society dares to go in facing up... ALAIN DE BOTTON The Anxiety of Sunday afternoon: your unlived lives and infinite possibility pressing upon the const... ALAIN DE BOTTON Blessed with riches and possibilities far beyond anything imagined by ancestors who tilled the unpre... ALAIN DE BOTTON We need a home in the psychological sense as much as we need one in the physical: to compensate for ... ALAIN DE BOTTON Even if our loved ones have assured us that they will be busy at work, even if they told us they hat... ALAIN DE BOTTON You normally have to be bashed about a bit by life to see the point of daffodils, sunsets and uneven... ALAIN DE BOTTON What a peculiar civilisation this was: inordinately rich, yet inclined to accrue its wealth through ... ALAIN DE BOTTON Despite the best efforts of critics and the hopes of authors, our tastes in books are probably as in... ALAIN DE BOTTON We would like to go and see the field that Millet…shows us in his Springtime, we would like Claude... ALAIN DE BOTTON Our feelings of anxiety are genuine but confused signals that something is amiss, and so need to be ... ALAIN DE BOTTON Paying tax should be framed as a glorious civic duty worthy of gratitude - not a punishment for maki... ALAIN DE BOTTON It was no longer her absence that wounded me, but my growing indifference to it. Forgetting, however... ALAIN DE BOTTON Perhaps it is true that we do not really exist until there is someone there to see us existing, we c... ALAIN DE BOTTON Every fall into love involves the triumph of hope over self-knowledge. We fall in love hoping we won... ALAIN DE BOTTON Nature puts us all in our places. Being made to feel small isn't something we welcome when it's done... ALAIN DE BOTTON in Flaubert’s eyes, that only entirely illiterate and uneducated Frenchmen now stood a chance of b... ALAIN DE BOTTON A clean conscience is the preserve of those without sufficient imagination. ALAIN DE BOTTON In the past, Flaubert implied, idiots had had no clue as to what the carbon structure of diamonds wa... ALAIN DE BOTTON Never too late to learn some embarrassingly basic, stupidly obvious things about oneself. ALAIN DE BOTTON But we would do well to meditate daily, rather as the religious do on their God, on the 9.5 trillion... ALAIN DE BOTTON To a shameful extent, the charm of marriage boils down to how unpleasant it is to be alone. This isn... ALAIN DE BOTTON One of the best protections against disappointment is to have a lot going on. ALAIN DE BOTTON What kills us isn't one big thing, but thousands of tiny obligations we can't turn down for fear of ... ALAIN DE BOTTON Booksellers are the most valuable destination for the lonely, given the numbers of books written bec... ALAIN DE BOTTON It is precisely when we hear little from our partner which frightens, shocks, or sickens us that we ... ALAIN DE BOTTON Unrequited love may be painful, but it is safely painful, because it does not involve inflicting dam... ALAIN DE BOTTON It's clear to me that there is no good reason for many philosophy books to sound as complicated as t... ALAIN DE BOTTON Jarenlang kwam ik bij het boodschappen doen langs een huis dat weliswaar een van de lelijkste gebouw... ALAIN DE BOTTON Snobbery exists in all areas of life, not least literary criticism. By snobbery I mean, any method o... ALAIN BOTTON Kant and Hegel are interesting thinkers. But I am happy to insist that they are also terrible writer... ALAIN BOTTON I passionately believe that's it's not just what you say that counts, it's also how you say it - tha... ALAIN BOTTON I am in general a very pessimistic person with an optimistic, day-to-day take on things. The bare fa... ALAIN BOTTON