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Alain de Botton Quotes - Page 4

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

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.

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.

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

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

We accept the need to train extensively to fly a plane; but think instinct should be enough for marrying and raising kids.

Alain de Botton
Kids, Thinking, Needs
Twitter post from Apr 28, 2013

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

Alain de Botton
Dream, Get Over, Stills

Reputation matters so much only because people so seldom think for themselves.

Alain de Botton
Thinking, People, Matter

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

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.

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.

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

Alain de Botton
Happiness, Play, Perspective

Kant and Hegel are interesting thinkers. But I am happy to insist that they are also terrible writers.

Alain de Botton
Interesting, Hegel, Terrible

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

Alain de Botton
Practice, Contentment, Violin

Art holds out the promise of inner wholeness.

Alain de Botton
Art, Promise, Wholeness

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

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.

Choosing a spouse and a choosing career: the two great decisions for which society refuses to set up institutional guidance.

Alain de Botton
Careers, Two, Decision

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

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

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

The moment we cry in a film is not when things are sad but when they turn out to be more beautiful than we expected them to be.

Alain de Botton
Beautiful, Cry, Film

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

Alain de Botton
Writing, What Matters, Records

Social media has lots of benefits, but compared to Christianity, it tends to group people by interests. Religion puts you with people who have nothing in common except that you're human.

Alain de Botton
Media, People, Benefits
"Alain de Botton: a life in writing" by Stuart Jeffries, www.theguardian.com. January 20, 2012.

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

One of the best protections against disappointment is to have a lot going on.

Alain de Botton
Disappointment, Protection

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