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Alain de Botton Quotes - Page 11

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Philosophy, art, politics, religion and bohemia have never sought to do away entirely with the status hierarchy; they have attemptee, rather, to institute new kinds of hierarchies based on sets of values unrecognised

Philosophy, art, politics, religion and bohemia have never sought to do away entirely with the status hierarchy; they have attemptee, rather, to institute new kinds of hierarchies based on sets of values unrecognised by, and critical of, those of the majority.. They have provided us with persuasive and consoling reminders that there is more than one way of succeeding in life.

Alain de Botton
Art, Philosophy, Majority

Gaffe-focused journalism: revenge of intelligent people who know true evils are out there but lack the access/time to get to them.

Alain de Botton
Revenge, Intelligent, True Evil
Twitter post from Sep 25, 2012

An understandable hunger for potential clients tempts many [career counseling therapists] to overpromise, like creative writing teachers who, out of greed or sentimentality, sometimes imply that all of their students could one day produce worthwhile literature, rather than frankly acknowledging the troubling truth, anathema to a democratic society, that the great writer, like the contented worker, remains an erratic and anomalous event, immune to the methods of factory farming.

Alain de Botton
Teacher, Writing, Careers
"The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work". Book by Alain de Botton, 2009.

The pre-scientific age, whatever its deficiencies, had at least offered its members the peace of mind that follows from knowing all man-made achievements to be nothing next to the grandeur of the universe. We, more blessed in our gadgetry but less humble in our outlook, have been left... having no more compelling repository of veneration than our brilliant, precise, blinkered and morally troubling fellow human beings.

Alain de Botton
Blessed, Humble, Men
"The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work". Book by Alain de Botton, 2008.

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.

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

Writing a book has about it some of the anxiety of telling a joke and having to wait several years to know whether or not it was funny.

Alain de Botton
Book, Writing, Years

The real issue is not whether baking biscuits is meaningful, but the extent to which the activity can seem to be so after it has been continuously stretched and subdivided across five thousand lives.

Alain de Botton
Meaningful, Real, Issues
"The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work". Book by Alain de Botton, 2008.

Religions are so subtle, so complicated, so intelligent in many ways that they're not fit to be abandoned to the religious alone; they're for all of us.

Alain de Botton
God, Religious, Intelligent

In their different ways, art and philosophy help us, in Schopenhauer's words, to turn pain into knowledge.

Alain de Botton
Art, Pain, Philosophy
Alain de Botton (2001). “The Consolations of Philosophy”, p.188, Penguin UK

Life gives us no such handy markers - a storm comes, and far from this being a harbinger of death and collapse, during its course a person discovers love and truth, beauty and happiness, the rain lashing at the windows all the while.

Alain de Botton
Rain, Giving, Storm
Alain de Botton (2015). “On Love: A Novel”, p.119, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

Sublime places repeat in grand terms a lesson that ordinary life typically teaches viciously: that the universe is mightier than we are, that we are frail and temporary and have no alternative but to accept limitations on our will; that we must bow to necessities greater than ourselves.

Alain de Botton
Sublime, Bows, Ordinary

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

Alain de Botton
Book, Secret, Fascination

Many moments in religion seem attractive to me even though I can't believe in any of it.

Alain de Botton
Believe, Moments, Attractive

We tend to believe in the modern secular world that if you tell someone something once, they'll remember it. ... Religions go, "Nonsense. You need to keep repeating the lesson 10 times a day. So get on your knees and repeat it." That's what all religions tell us: "Get on your knees and repeat it 10 or 20 or 15 times a day." Otherwise our minds are like sieves.

Alain de Botton
Believe, Mind, Needs
"Atheism 2.0". TED conference, www.ted.com. July 2011.

Objectively good spaces to work rarely end up being so; in their faultlessness, quiet and well-equipped studios have a habit of rendering the fear of failure overwhelming. Original thoughts are like shy animals. We sometimes have to look the other way - towards a busy street or terminal - before they run out of their burrows.

Alain de Botton
Running, Animal, Space

Much of the really serious trouble in the world gets going with a sense of humiliation.

Alain de Botton
World, Serious, Trouble
Twitter post from Sep 13, 2013

The only possible way to begin a book is to tell oneself that its eventual failure is guaranteed — but survivable.

Alain de Botton
Book, Way, Oneself

Taking architecture seriously therefore makes some singular and strenuous demands upon us...It means conceding that we are inconveniently vulnerable to the colour of our wallpaper and that our sense of purpose may be derailed by an unfortunate bedspread

Alain de Botton
Mean, Purpose, Demand

We should read other people's books in order to learn what we feel; it is our own thoughts we should be developing, even if it is another writer's thought that help us to do so.

Alain de Botton
Book, Order, People

Happiness may be difficult to obtain. The obstacles are not primarily financial.

Alain de Botton
May, Obstacles, Financial
"The Consolations of Philosophy". Book by Alain de Botton, Chapter II, Consolation For Not having Enough Money, 2000.

I'm also interested in the modern suggestion that you can have a combination of love and sex in a marriage - which no previous society has ever believed.

Alain de Botton
Sex, Suggestions, Modern

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

Alain de Botton
Desire, Stronger, Comfort
Alain De Botton (2008). “Status Anxiety”, p.250, Vintage

To look at the paper is to raise a seashell to one's ear and to be overwhelmed by the roar of humanity.

Alain de Botton
Humanity, Looks, Ears
"The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work". Book by Alain de Botton, 2009.

I assemble my ideas in pieces on a computer file, then gradually find a place for them on a piece of scaffolding I erect.

Alain de Botton
Ideas, Pieces, Computer

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

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