Alain de Botton quotes - page 7

I was foreign and Jewish, with a funny name, and was very small and hated sport, a real problem at an English prep school. So the way to get round it was to become the school joker, which I did quite effectively - I was always fooling around to make the people who would otherwise dump me in the loo laugh. (Alain de Botton)
Social media has lots of benefits, but compared to Christianity, it tends to group people by interests. Religion puts you with people who have nothing in common except that you're human. View quote
Alain de Botton
All tours are filled with humiliation. My publisher once hired a private jet to fly me to a venue where 1,000 people were waiting. It almost bankrupted him. View quote
Alain de Botton
When I see someone like Richard Dawkins, I see my father. I grew up with that. I'm basically the child of Richard Dawkins. View quote
Alain de Botton
In Britain, because I live here, I can also run into problems of envy and competition. But all this is just in a day's work for a writer. You can't put stuff out there without someone calling you a complete fool. Oh, well. View quote
Alain de Botton
On paper, being good sounds great but a lot depends on the atmosphere of the workplace or community we live in. We tend to become good or bad depending on the cues sent out within a particular space. View quote
Alain de Botton
I think where people tend to end up results from a combination of encouragement, accident, and lucky break, etc. etc. Like many others, my career happened like it did because certain doors opened and certain doors closed. View quote
Alain de Botton
So it's all about trying to find the best fit between your talents and what the world can offer at that point in time. View quote
Alain de Botton
The greatest obstacle to living a meaningful life is the sense that one has plenty of time left. View quote
Alain de Botton
Few in this world are ever simply nasty; those who hurt us are themselves in pain. The appropriate response is hence never cynicism nor aggression but, at the rare moments one can manage it, always love. View quote
Alain de Botton
We should add that it is a privilege to be the recipient of a sulk: it means the other person respects and trusts us enough to think we should understand their unspoken hurt. It is one of the odder gifts of love. Eventually. (Alain de Botton)
Marriage: a hopeful, generous, infinitely kind gamble taken by two people who don't know yet who they are or who the other might be, binding themselves to a future they cannot conceive of and have carefully omitted to investigate. View quote
Alain de Botton
... love is a skill, not just an enthusiasm. View quote
Alain de Botton
We don't need to be constantly reasonable in order to have good relationships; all we need to have mastered is the occasional capacity to acknowledge with good grace that we may, in one or two areas, be somewhat insane. View quote
Alain de Botton
As Proust once said, classically beautiful women should be left to men without imagination. View quote
Alain de Botton
You're not upset.' ‘I am.' ‘You deserve to be. View quote
Alain de Botton
Never, ever become a writer. It's a nightmare. View quote
Alain de Botton
I went to church and couldn't swallow it. The music was nice but I don't belong there. View quote
Alain de Botton
Pick up any newspaper or magazine, open the TV, and you'll be bombarded with suggestions of how to have a successful life. Some of these suggestions are deeply unhelpful to our own projects and priorities - and we should take care. View quote
Alain de Botton
I'm also interested in the modern suggestion that you can have a combination of love and sex in a marriage - which no previous society has ever believed. View quote
Alain de Botton
I was uncomfortable writing fiction. My love was the personal essay, rather than the novel. (Alain de Botton)
I know a lot about writing, but I don't know much about how other industries work. I've tried to use my naivety to my advantage. View quote
Alain de Botton
There are people who say, 'Oh this guy is quite thick.' I think the reason is that, increasingly, I don't mind being simple in terms of literary expression. Others say, 'No, no, no. He went to Cambridge. He got a good degree. He must be Einstein.' View quote
Alain de Botton
It's very hard to respect people on holiday - everybody looks so silly at the beach, it makes you hate humanity - but when you see people at their work they elicit respect, whether it's a mechanic, a stonemason or an accountant. View quote
Alain de Botton
Many moments in religion seem attractive to me even though I can't believe in any of it. View quote
Alain de Botton