Alain de Botton

Status anxiety definitely exists at a political level. Many Iraqis were annoyed with the US essentially for reasons of status: for not…

— Alain de Botton

“To make it into a discipline is to give too large a role to what is only an incitement. Reading is on…

— Alain de Botton

There is psychological pleasure in this takeoff, too, for the swiftness of the plane’s ascent is an exemplary symbol of transformation. The…

— Alain de Botton

Trying to be a sort of intellectual in the public arena is very irritating to people. They think, 'Why is this bugger…

— Alain de Botton

“Everyone is extremely hard and troubled to be around. Everyone has something substantially wrong with them. Everyone is extremely hard to live with. ”

— Alain de Botton

I've had my successes and failures. I know many academics in my field loathe me. I've come to loathe them back, as…

— 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…

— Alain de Botton

Bitterness: anger that forgot where it came from.

— 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

“We must, between periods of digging in the dark, endeavour always to transform our tears into knowledge.”

— Alain de Botton

“We do our sulking lovers the greatest possible favor when we are able to regard their tantrums as we would those of…

— Alain de Botton

The finest proof of our loyalty toward one another was our monstrous disloyalties towards everyone else.

— Alain de Botton

Curiosity might be pictured as being made up of chains of small questions extending outwards, sometimes over huge distances, from a central…

— Alain de Botton

“Sex will never be simple or nice in the ways we might like it to be,It is not fundamentally democratic or kind;…

— Alain de Botton

Architects themselves tend to shy away from the word, preferring instead to talk about the manipulation of space.

— Alain de Botton

When Proust urges us to evaluate the world properly, he repeatedly reminds us of the value of modest scenes.

— Alain de Botton

Pegging your contentment to the overall state of the world rather than of your own life: the basis of morality, or a…

— Alain de Botton

What bothers me is that there is so much emphasis on food, rather than gathering and meeting - so that there is…

— Alain de Botton

It seems the only way to write a half decent book is to worry oneself sick on an hourly basis that one…

— Alain de Botton

“I took pride in finding Chloe more beautiful than a Platonist would have done. The most interesting faces generally oscillate between charm…

— Alain de Botton

In the oasis complex, the thirsty man images he sees water, palm trees, and shade not because he has evidence for the…

— Alain de Botton

“We should add: it is a privilege to be the recipient of a sulk; it means the other person respects and trusts…

— Alain de Botton

Every adult life could be said to be defined by two great love stories: the story of our quest for sexual love…

— Alain de Botton

“Crucial insights that we need to convey to ourselves can often be received only at night, like city church bells that have…

— 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