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Alain de Botton

Alain de Botton Quotes

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Famous Alain de Botton Quotes

“Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than a moving plane, ship or train. There is an almost quaint correlation between what is in front of our eyes and the thoughts we are able to have in our heads: large thoughts at times requiring large views, new thoughts new places. Introspective reflections which are liable to stall are helped along by the flow of the landscape. The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to do.”

ThinkingMindMayEyeAbleMovingViewsJourneyFrontsConversationReflectionFlowTrainShipsLandscapePlanesInternalsNew ThoughtReluctantIntrospectiveLiableCorrelationNew PlacesQuaintMidwife
Book:The Art of Travel
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“The origins and travels of our purchases remain matters of indifference, although to the more imaginative at least a slight dampness at the bottom of a carton, or an obscure code printed along a computer cable, may hint at processes of manufacture and transport nobler and more mysterious, more worthy of wonder and study, than the very goods themselves.”

MayMatterProcessWonderStudyComputerBottomVery GoodWorthyMysteriousCodeIndifferenceGoodsObscureImaginativeCablesPrintedHintsTransport
Author:Alain de Botton
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“Status Anxiety: A worry, so pernicious as to be capable of ruining extended stretches of our lives, that we are in danger of failing to conform to the ideals of success laid down by our society and that we may as a result be stripped of dignity and respect; a worry that we are currently occupying too modest a rung or are about to fall to a lower one.”

MayHappinessSuccessFallResultsWorryOur LivesFailingDangerAnxietyCapableIdealsDignityOur SocietyModestConformPerniciousDignity And Respect
Author:Alain de Botton
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“Unrequited love may be painful, but it is safely painful, because it does not involve inflicting damage on anyone but oneself, a private pain that is as bittersweet as it is self-induced. But as soon as love is reciprocated, one must be prepared to give up the passivity of simply being hurt and take on the responsibility of perpetrating hurt oneself.”

GivingMayDoeSelfPainHurtLove IsResponsibilityGiving UpPreparedOneselfPainfulDamageUnrequited LoveBe PreparedUnrequitedBittersweetPassivityBeing Hurt
Book:On Love: A Novel
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“Rather than teasing the buyers, we may blame the society in which they lived for setting up a situation where the purchase of ornate cabinets felt psychologically necessary and rewarding, where respect was dependent on baroque displays. Rather than a tale of greed, the history of luxury could more accurately be read as a record of emotional trauma. It is the legacy of those who have felt pressured by the disdain of others to add an extraordinary amount to their bare selves in order to signal that they too may lay a claim to love.”

MaySelfOrderFeltSituationRecordsEmotionalAmountClaimsBlameLaysAddExtraordinaryGreedTraumaSettingTalesSettingsLuxuryLegacyDependentDisplaySignalsCabinetsTeaseDisdainBuyersPressuredBaroqueEmotional Trauma
Book:Status Anxiety
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“That said, deciding to avoid other people does not necessarily equate with having no desire whatsoever for company; it may simply reflect a dissatisfaction with what—or who—is available. Cynics are, in the end, only idealists with awkwardly high standards. In Chamfort's words, 'It is sometimes said of a man who lives alone that he does not like society. This is like saying of a man that he does not like going for walks because he is not fond of walking at night in the forêt de Bondy.”

PeopleMenMayDoeSaidEndsSometimesDesireNightWalksCompanyWalkingStandardsAvailableDissatisfactionIdealistHigh Standards
Author:Alain de Botton
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“It seemed an advantage to be traveling alone. Our responses to the world are crucially moulded by the company we keep, for we temper our curiosity to fit in with the expectations of others...Being closely observed by a companion can also inhibit our observation of others; then, too, we may become caught up in adjusting ourselves to the companion's questions and remarks, or feel the need to make ourselves seem more normal than is good for our curiosity.”

WorldNeedsFeelsMaySeemsCompanyFitNormalExpectationsAdvantageResponseCuriosityCaughtObservationCompanionTemperCaught UpRemarksAdjustingTraveling AloneCompany We Keep
Author:Alain de Botton
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“The true nature of bureaucracy may be nowhere more obvious to the observer than in a developing country, for only there will it still be made manifest by the full complement of documents, files, veneered desks and cabinets - which convey the strict and inverse relationship between productivity and paperwork.”

MayMadeStillsCountryObviousProductivityDevelopingManifestDesksDocumentsStrictBureaucracyObserversFilesCabinetsTrue NatureComplementDeveloping CountriesPaperworkInverse
Book:The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
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“It is the most ambitious and driven among us who are the most sorely in need of having our reckless hopes dampened through immersive dousings in the darkness which religions have explored. This is a particular priority for secular Americans, perhaps the most anxious and disappointed people on earth, for their nation infuses them with the most extreme hopes about what they may be able to achieve in their working lives and relationships.”

PeopleNeedsMayAbleEarthNationsDarknessAchieveParticularAtheistExtremesDrivenPrioritiesDisappointedAnxiousAmbitiousSecularRecklessWorking Life
Author:Alain de Botton
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