In a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion.
ALAIN DE BOTTONYou have to be quite heavily invested in someone to do them the honour of telling them you’re annoyed with them.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
-
-
True respectability stems not from the will of the majority but from proper reasoning.
ALAIN DE BOTTON -
Getting to the top has an unfortunate tendency to persuade people that the system is OK after all.
ALAIN DE BOTTON -
The longing for a destiny is no nowhere stronger than in our romantic life. All too often forced to share our bed with those who cannot fathom our soul, can we not be forgiven if we believe ourselves fated to stumble one day upon the man or woman of our dreams.
ALAIN DE BOTTON -
We will cease to be angry once we cease to be so hopeful.
ALAIN DE BOTTON -
Do you love me enough that I may be weak with you? Everyone loves strength, but do you love me for my weakness? That is the real test.
ALAIN DE BOTTON -
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 -
When work is not going well, it’s useful to remember that our identities stretch beyond what is on the business card, that we were people long before we became workers – and will continue to be human once we have put our tools down forever.
ALAIN DE BOTTON -
Curiosity takes ignorance seriously – and is confident enough to admit when it’s in the dark. It is aware of not knowing. And then it sets out to do something about it.
ALAIN DE BOTTON -
Good books put a finger on emotions that are deeply our own – but that we could never have described on our own.
ALAIN DE BOTTON -
Unnatural to expect that learning to be happy should be any easier than, say, learning to play the violin or require any less practice.
ALAIN DE BOTTON -
Our greatest furies spring from events which violate our sense of the ground of our existence.
ALAIN DE BOTTON -
Maturity: the confidence to have no opinions on many things.
ALAIN DE BOTTON -
If one felt successful, there’d be so little incentive to be successful.
ALAIN DE BOTTON -
Once I began to consider everything as being of potential interest, objects released latent layers of value.
ALAIN DE BOTTON -
Philosophy had supplied Socrates with convictions in which he had been able to have rational, as opposed to hysterical, confidence when faced with disapproval.
ALAIN DE BOTTON