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Quote by Alain de Botton

“Our greatest furies spring from events which violate our sense of the ground of our existence.”

Quote by Alain de Botton

Author

Alain de Botton

Alain de Botton is a Swiss writer and philosopher known for his books on philosophy, art, and culture. His work is characterized by its accessible exploration of profound themes, which has won him a wide audience. more

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“By travelling across frontiers, on horseback and in the imagination, Montaigne invited us to to exchange local prejudices and the self division they induced for less constraining identities as citizens of the world.”

World Self Imagination Identity Citizens Prejudice Locals Division Invited Frontiers Horseback

Author:Alain de Botton

“It is striking how much more seriously we are likely to be taken after we have been dead a few centuries.”

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“A virtuous, ordinary life, striving for wisdom but never far from folly, is achievement enough.”

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“In their different ways, art and philosophy help us, in Schopenhauer's words, to turn pain into knowledge.”

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Book:The Consolations of Philosophy

Source: The Consolations of Philosophy

“The greatest works of art speak to us without knowing us.”

Art Speak Knowing Works Of Art

Author:Alain de Botton

“It would be foolish to describe the logistics hub as merely ugly, for it has the horrifying, soulless, immaculate beauty characteristic of many of the workplaces of the modern world.”

World Would Be Modern Ugly Foolish Characteristics Workplace Modern World Immaculate Logistics Soulless Hub

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“Alcohol-inspired fights are a reminder of the price we pay for our daily submission at the altars of prudence and order.”

Order Fighting Pay Inspired Alcohol Submission Reminders Prudence Altars

Book:The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

Source: The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

“The real issue is not whether baking biscuits is meaningful, but the extent to which the activity can seem to be so after it has been continuously stretched and subdivided across five thousand lives.”

Has Beens Real Seems Issues Five Thousand Activity Meaningful Baking Biscuits

Author:Alain de Botton

“I thought about societies where exceptional fortunes are built up in industries with very little connection to out sincere and significant needs, industries where it is difficult to escape from the disparity between a seriousness of means and a triviality of ends.”

Needs Mean Littles Ends Difficult Industry Built Connections Fortune Significant Sincere Exceptional Seriousness Disparity Triviality

Book:The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

Source: The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

“Symons remarked that the most common and unhelpful illusion plaguing those who came to see him was the idea that they ought somehow, in the normal course of events, to have intuited long before they had finished their degrees, started families, bought houses and risen to the top of law firms - what they should properly be doing with their lives. They were tormented by a residual notion of having through some error or stupidity on their part missed out on their true calling.”

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Author:Alain de Botton