Alain de Botton

find out something is not understand

"It is by finding out what something is not that one comes closest to understanding what it is."

― Alain de Botton

envy tangle ambition

"Envy: a confused, tangled guide to one's own ambitions."

― Alain de Botton

better life people

"Everyone wants a better life: very few of us want to be better people."

― Alain de Botton

maturity no opinion

"Maturity: the confidence to have no opinions on many things."

― Alain de Botton

human challenge interesting smartphone

"The challenge for a human now is to be more interesting to another than his or her smartphone."

― Alain de Botton

cynic idealist high standard

“Cynics are merely idealists with unusually high standards.”

― Alain de Botton

age improve capacity pass

“One's doing well if age improves even slightly one's capacity to hold on to that vital truism: "This too shall pass.”

― Alain de Botton

learn problem pain hope suffer think

“We don't really learn anything properly until there is a problem, until we are in pain, until something fails to go as we had hoped ... We suffer, therefore we think.”

― Alain de Botton

lost crazy desperate good life certainty reason

“Feeling lost, crazy and desperate belongs to a good life as much as optimism, certainty and reason.”

― Alain de Botton

hope despair story fact

“The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts.”

― Alain de Botton

bash life beauty daffodil sunset

“You normally have to be bashed about a bit by life to see the point of daffodils, sunsets and uneventful nice days.”

― Alain de Botton

personalitydefend anxiety sadness

“The largest part of what we call 'personality' is determined by how we've opted to defend ourselves against anxiety and sadness".”

― Alain de Botton

people interesting rattle bars cages

“People only get really interesting when they start to rattle the bars of their cages.”

― Alain de Botton

embarrassed last year learning enough lifelong

“Anyone who isn't embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn't learning enough.”

― Alain de Botton

enemy hate

“To one's enemies: "I hate myself more than you ever could.”

― Alain de Botton

work-life balance worth fight life value

“There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.”

― Alain de Botton

protect disappointment business

“One of the best protections against disappointment is to have a lot going on.”

― Alain de Botton

book good reading moment

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

― Alain de Botton