He was a volatile mixture of confidence and vulnerability. He could deliver extended monologues on professional matters, then promptly stop in his… — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
A virtuous, ordinary life, striving for wisdom but never far from folly, is achievement enough. — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
We are properly ready for marriage when we are strong enough to embrace a life of frustration. — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
Curiosity takes ignorance seriously - and is confident enough to admit when it's in the dark. It is aware of not knowing.… — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
A 'good job' can be both practically attractive while still not good enough to devote your entire life to. — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
We often lose our tempers not with those who are actually to blame; just with those who love us enough to forgive… — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
Mental health: having enough safe places in your mind for your thoughts to settle. — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
What I want to argue for is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but that we should… — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
The architects who benefit us most maybe those generous enough to lay aside their claims to genius in order to devote themselves… — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
There's a whole category of people who miss out by not allowing themselves to be weird enough. — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
Anyone who isn't embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn't learning enough. — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
Do you love me enough that I may be weak with you? Everyone loves strength, but do you love me for my… — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
“To be mature is, we're told, to move beyond possessiveness. Jealousy is for babies. The mature person knows that no one owns anyone.” — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
“He feared that by leaving her he would ruin her life - so he stayed, and did just that.” — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
You have to be quite heavily invested in someone to do them the honour of telling them you're annoyed with them. — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
“The Anxiety of Sunday afternoon: your unlived lives and infinite possibility pressing upon the constraints of reality.” — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
Those who divorce aren't necessarily the most unhappy, just those neatly able to believe their misery is caused by one other person. — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
“We could not be fulfilled if we weren't inauthentic some of the time—inauthentic, that is, in relation to such things as our passing desires… — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
“Insofar as we appreciate order, it is when we perceive it as being accompanied by complexity, when we feel that a variety of elements… — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
I like the values associated with a medical family - common sense, being practical but also thoughtful. — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
“Anyone who urgently needs us deserves, in the true book of love, to be our friend.” — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
“We can then recognize that we invented religions to serve two central needs which continue to this day and which secular society has not… — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
“Half the ingratitude and complacency in the world down to how slowly and imperceptibly most good and bad things unfold.” — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
It is perhaps when our lives are at their most problematic that we are likely to be most receptive to beautiful things. — Alain de Botton Copy Share Image
