Wealth is not an absolute. It is relative to desire. Every time we yearn for something we cannot afford, we grow poorer, whatever our resources. And every time we feel satisfied with what we have, we can be counted as rich, however little we may actually possess.
ALAIN DE BOTTONUnnatural to expect that learning to be happy should be any easier than, say, learning to play the violin or require any less practice.
More Alain de Botton Quotes
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An argument in a couple: 2 people attempting to introduce each other to important truths – by panicked shouting.
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The happiness that may emerge from taking a second look is central to Proust’s therapeutic conception. It reveals the extent to which our dissatisfactions may be the result of failing to look properly at our lives rather than the result of anything inherently deficient about them.
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It is not just nature that defies us. Human life is as overwhelming… If we spend time in it [the vast spaces of nature], they may help us to accept more graciously the great, unfathomable events that molest our lives and will inevitably return us to dust.
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Most anger stems from feelings of weakness, sadness and fear: hard to remember when one is at the receiving end of its defiant roar.
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Everyone returns us to a different sense of ourselves, for we become a little of who they think we are.
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Work finally begins when the fear of doing nothing exceeds the fear of doing it badly.
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We may seek a fortune for no greater reason than to secure the respect and attention of people who would otherwise look straight through us.
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There’s a whole category of people who miss out by not allowing themselves to be weird enough.
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Mental health: having enough safe places in your mind for your thoughts to settle.
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Differ though we might with Christianity’s view of what precisely our souls need, it is hard to discredit the provocative underlying thesis.
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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?
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Not everyone is worth listening to.
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Insomnia is a glamorous term for thoughts you forgot to have in the day.
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I went to church and couldn’t swallow it. The music was nice but I don’t belong there.
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Being content is perhaps no less easy than playing the violin well: and requires no less practice.
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