Time Quotes by Alain de Botton

“How mean to buy only as many books as one will actually have time to read.”

— Alain de Botton

Intuition is unconscious accumulated experience informing judgement in real time.

— Alain de Botton

“The feeling one has no time to get anything done provides the pressure that guarantees one does get some things done.”

— Alain de Botton

Most of what makes a book 'good' is that we are reading it at the right moment for us.

— Alain de Botton

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

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

— Alain de Botton

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

“The man who shouts every time he loses his house keys is betraying a beautiful but rash faith in a universe in…

— Alain de Botton

It is not just nature that defies us. Human life is as overwhelming... If we spend time in it [the vast spaces…

— Alain de Botton

“Our understanding of love has been hijacked and beguiled by its first distractingly moving moments. We have allowed our love stories to…

— Alain de Botton

It is no coincidence that the Western attraction to sublime landscapes developed at precisely the moment when traditional beliefs in God began…

— Alain de Botton

Most of the time, we make discoveries about how difficult people are at the moment when the difficulties have actually hurt us;…

— Alain de Botton

I always feel that I am writing for somebody who is bright but impatient. Someone who doesn't have unlimited time. That is…

— Alain de Botton

A danger of travel is that we see things at the wrong time, before we have had a chance to build up…

— Alain de Botton

I remember going to university, and the people who'd left home for the first time looked at the food and were horrified.…

— Alain de Botton

I guess my overall life plan is to think about issues that concern me and try to use culture generally to make…

— Alain de Botton

“What makes the prospect of death distinctive in the modern age is the background of permanent technological and sociological revolution against which…

— Alain de Botton

There are things that are not spoken about in polite society. Very quickly in most conversations you'll reach a moment where someone…

— Alain de Botton

I'm one of those introverted people who simply feels a lot better after spending time alone thinking through ideas and emotions. This…

— Alain de Botton

“The word “snobbery” came into use for the first time in England during the 1820s. It was said to have derived from…

— Alain de Botton

It looks like it’s wasting time, but literature is actually the ultimate time-saver - because it gives us access to a range…

— Alain de Botton

“He [Wordsworth] invited his readers to abandon their usual perspective and to consider for a time how the world might look through…

— Alain de Botton

“They've reached the point where, by rights, their story -- always slight -- should draw to a close. The Romantic challenge is…

— Alain de Botton

“The word ‘snobbery’ came into use for the first time in England during the 1820s. It was said to have derived from…

— Alain de Botton

“Though anger seems a pessimistic response to a situation, it is at root a symptom of hope: the hope that the world…

— Alain de Botton

“While paying attention to the messages in its public spaces, Christianity also wisely recognizes the extent to which our concepts of good…

— Alain de Botton

“Despite the liberal atmosphere of our time, it would be naive to assume that the distinction between “weird” and “normal” has disappeared.…

— Alain de Botton

“It is not only the hostility of others that may prevent us from questioning the status quo. Our will to doubt can…

— Alain de Botton

“In the past, we got to know others because we had no option but to ask them for help – and were…

— Alain de Botton

“The overreactor is responsible, as the psychological term puts it, for the 'transference' of an emotion from the past on to someone…

— Alain de Botton

“Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than a moving plane, ship or train. There…

— Alain de Botton

“Most of the time, we have to be strong, we must not show our fragility. We’ve known that since the schoolyard. There…

— Alain De Botton

“The secular are at this moment in history a great deal more optimistic than the religious – something of an irony, given…

— Alain de Botton

I feel that the great challenge of our time is the communication of ideas.

— Alain de Botton

Writing isn’t a career choice. It’s self-medication that over time precipitates the madness it was meant to ward off.

— Alain de Botton

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

— Alain de Botton

“To appreciate life's small moments, it helps to have a sense the whole can never be made perfect.”

— Alain de Botton

We should keep a careful diary of our moments of envy: they are our covert guides to what we should try to…

— Alain de Botton

Every time we feel satisfied with what we have, we can be counted as rich, however little we may actually possess.

— Alain de Botton

I was told by my father nine times a day that you were going to get a job the minute you finish…

— Alain de Botton