Alain de BottonThe more dignity is widely and freely available in a society, the less people want to be famous. ✨ Twitter post from Feb 13, 2013371Humanity
Alain de BottonHappiness is impossible for longer than 15 minutes. We are the descendants of creatures who, above all else, worried.371Humanity
Alain de BottonThe longing for destiny is nowhere stronger than in our romantic life. ✨ Alain de Botton (2015). On Love: A Novel, p.10, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.371LifeLoveReading
Alain de BottonPerhaps it is true that we do not really exist until there is someone there to see us existing, we cannot properly speak until there is someone who can understand what we are sayi… ▶362LifeLoveReading
Alain de BottonIt is in dialogue with pain that many beautiful things acquire their value. Acquaintance with grief turns out to be one of the more unusual prerequisites of architectural apprecia… ▶362Sadness
Alain de BottonOut of the millions of people we live among, most of whom we habitually ignore and are ignored by in turn, there are always a few that hold hostage our capacity for happiness, who… ▶373DeathHumanity
Alain de BottonThe more familiar two people become, the more the language they speak together departs from that of the ordinary, dictionary-defined discourse. Familiarity creates a new language,… ▶341HumanityLoveReading
Alain de BottonPaying tax should be framed as a glorious civic duty worthy of gratitude - not a punishment for making money. ✨ Twitter post from Sep 23, 2012363Philosophy
Alain de BottonIt's as though either you accept [religious] doctrine and then you can have all the nice stuff, or you reject the doctrine and you're living in some kind of spiritual wasteland un… ▶363Life
Alain de BottonWriting isn’t a career choice. It’s self-medication that over time precipitates the madness it was meant to ward off. ✨ Twitter post from May 28, 2013363Time
Alain de BottonWhat we find exotic abroad may be what we hunger for in vain at home. ✨ Toothbrush, bikini... and dead poet by Philip Marsden, www.theguardian.com. May 19, 2002.341Death
Alain de BottonDo you love me enough that I may be weak with you? Everyone loves strength, but do you love me for my weakness? That is the real test. ✨ Alain de Botton (2006). On Love: A N… ▶363LoveReading
Alain de BottonOne rarely falls in love without being as much attracted to what is interestingly wrong with someone as what is objectively healthy.375Love
Alain de BottonWe wanted to test each other's capacity for survival: only if we had tried in vain to destroy one another would we know we were safe. ✨ Alain de Botton (2015). On Love: A No… ▶375LoveReading
Alain de BottonThere is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life. ✨ Twitter post from Oct 14, 2015331Life
Alain de BottonWork is most fulfilling when you're at the comfortable, exciting edge of not quite knowing what you are doing. ✨ Twitter post from Nov 14, 2014342Time
Alain de BottonIt is in books, poems, paintings which often give us the confidence to take seriously feelings in ourselves that we might otherwise never have thought to acknowledge.331ReadingSadnessThought
Alain de BottonThe greatest difficulty of Travel is that one is forced to take oneself along.332Death
Alain de BottonIt 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 … ▶365Life
Alain de BottonIntuition is unconscious accumulated experience informing judgement in real time. ✨ Twitter post from Feb 05, 2013365LifeTime
Alain de BottonThe telephone becomes an instrument of torture in the demonic hands of a beloved who doesn't call. ✨ Alain de Botton (2015). On Love: A Novel, p.20, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.376LoveReading
Alain de BottonGood sex isn't just fun, it keeps us sane and happy. Having sex with someone makes us feel wanted, alive and potent.333Life
Alain de BottonFeeling lost, crazy and desperate belongs to a good life as much as optimism, certainty and reason. ✨ Twitter post from Jan 13, 2013322HopeLife
Alain de BottonTo one's enemies: I hate myself more than you ever could.333Hope
Alain de BottonIf cynicism and love lie at opposite ends of a spectrum, do we not sometimes fall in love in order to escape the debilitating cynicism to which we are prone? Is there not in every… ▶333LoveReadingTime
Alain de BottonMaturity: knowing where you're crazy, trying to warn others of the fact and striving to keep yourself under control.377Truth
Alain de BottonOne of the better guarantors of ending up in a good relationship: an advanced capacity to be alone. ✨ Twitter post from Mar 16, 2014323Truth
Alain de BottonOne of the best protections against disappointment is to have a lot going on.301Thought
Alain de BottonThere are things that are not spoken about in polite society. Very quickly in most conversations you'll reach a moment where someone goes, 'Oh, that's a bit heavy,' or 'Eew, disgu… ▶323HumanityReadingThought
Alain de BottonAt the beginning of human history, as we struggled to light fires and to chisel fallen trees into rudimentary canoes, who could have predicted that long after we had managed to se… ▶345HumanityLove
