Quotes from Alain de Botton

Perhaps the easiest people to fall in love with are those about whom we know nothing.

the imagination could provide a more-than-adequate substitute for the vulgar reality of actual experience'.

N-o s? reuÈ™esc niciodat? s? fac sau s? fiu tot ce vrei - È™i nici invers -, dar mi-ar pl?cea s? cred c? putem fi tipul de oameni care îÈ™i spun unii altora cine sunt de fapt. Alternativa înseamna t?cere È™i minciun?, care sunt adev?raÈ›ii duÈ™mani ai iubirii.

Even the God of the Old Testament, faced with the continual querulousness of the tribes of Israel, had occasionally to ignite a piece of desert shrub to awe his audience into reverence. Technology would be the Modernists' burning bush.

Many people after a horrific few months or years of breakdown, will say: "I don't know how I'd ever have gotten well if I hadn't fallen ill".

It is the capacity to tolerate difference that is the true marker of the right person. Compatibility is an achievement of love; it shouldn't be its precondition.

If engineering cannot tell us what our houses should look like, nor in a pluralistic and non-deferential world can precedent or tradition, we must be free to pursue all stylistic options. We should acknowledge that the question of what is beautiful is both impossible to elucidate and shameful and even undemocratic to mention.

Melancholy isn't always a disorder that needs to be cured. It can be a species of intelligent grief which arises when we come face-to-face with the certainty that disappointment is written into the script from the start.

The continuing belief that the world is fundamentally just is implied in the very complaint that there has been an injustice.

There is a great difference between identifying a problem and solving it, between wisdom and the wise life. We are all more intelligent than we are capable, and awareness of the insanity of love has never saved anyone from the disease.

Seyahatler, dolayl? da olsa, iÅŸ ortam?n?n ve ayakta kalma mücadelesinin a??r koÅŸullar?ndan s?yr?ld???m?zda nas?l bir yaÅŸam?m?z olaca??n?, istediÄŸimiz gibi yaÅŸamaktan ne anlad???m?z? ortaya koyar.

Mutluluk, bizim beklentilerimizdeki gibi kesintisiz ve uzun süren bir memnuniyet duygusu deÄŸildir. Aksine, akl?n ve bilincin de iÅŸin içinde olduÄŸu, k?sac?k ve tesadüfi bir olgudur; k?sa bir süre için dünyay? çok net alg?lar?z; geçmiÅŸin ve geleceÄŸin olumlu düÅŸünceleri bir araya gelir ve endiÅŸeler ortadan kaybolur. Fakat bu durumun on dakikadan daha uzun sürdüÄŸü pek nadirdir.

The constant calls of the screens, some accompanied by the impatient pulsing of a cursor, suggest with what ease our seemingly entrenched lives might be altered were we simply to walk down a corridor and onto a craft that in a few hours would land us in a place of which we had no memories and where no one knew our name.

that man is richest who, having perfected the functions of his own life to the utmost, has also the widest helpful influence, both personal, and by means of his possessions, over the lives of others … Many of the persons commonly considered wealthy are, in reality, no more wealthy than the locks of their own strong boxes, they being inherently and eternally incapable of wealth.

The attentions of others matter to us because we are afflicted by a congenital uncertainty as to our own value, as a result of which affliction we tend to allow others' appraisals to play a determining role in how we see ourselves. Our sense of identity is held captive by the judgements of those we live among.

Analogising architecture with ethics helps us to discern that there is unlikely ever to be a single source of beauty in a building, just as no one quality can ever underpin excellence in a person.

Architecture excites our respect to the extent that it surpasses us.

Most business meetings involve one party elaborately suppressing a wish to shout at the other: 'just give us the money'.

When two people part it is the one who is not in love who makes the tender speeches.

Everything is amazing—once.

the news badly needs its audience to feel agitated, frightened and bothered a lot of the time – yet we have an even greater responsibility to try to remain resilient.

We are seekers of beauty, but avoid extravagance. We admire learning, but are unimpressed by pedantry. For us, wealth is an aim for its value when used, not as an empty boast. And the disgrace of poverty lies not in the admission of it, but more in the failure to avoid it in practice.

Episodes of unrequited love force us to develop a sense of humour about ourselves. It is impossible to think too well of who we are in their aftermath. Unrequited love edges us inevitably towards a basic humility. We are at last confirmed as truly ridiculous.

On the one hand, we may try to achieve more; and on the other, we may reduce the number of things we want to achieve.