Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton, FRSLis a Swiss-born, British-based self-help philosopher and public speaker. His books and television programmes discuss various contemporary subjects and themes, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. At 23, he published Essays in Love, which went on to sell two million copies. Other bestsellers include How Proust Can Change Your Life, Status Anxietyand The Architecture of Happiness...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth20 December 1969
smell light childhood
Most of our childhood is stored not in photos, but in certain biscuits, lights of day, smells, textures of carpet.
hurt light looks
As victims of hurt, we frequently don't bring up what ails us, because so many wounds look absurd in the light of day.
home sky weather
We are sad at home and blame the weather and the ugliness of the buildings, but on the tropical island we learn that the state of the skies and the appearance of our dwellings can never on their own underwrite our joy nor condemn us to misery.
practice play violin
Unnatural to expect that learning to be happy should be any easier than, say, learning to play the violin or require any less practice.
falling-in-love lying believe
If 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 coup de foudre a certain willful exaggeration of the qualities of the beloved, an exaggeration which distracts us from our habitual pessimism and focuses our energies on someone in whom we can believe in a way we have never believed in ourselves?
nightmare
Never, ever become a writer. It's a nightmare.
dream believe destiny
The longing for a destiny is no nowhere stronger than in our romantic life. All too often forced to share our bed with those who cannot fathom our soul, can we not be forgiven if we believe ourselves fated to stumble one day upon the man or woman of our dreams.
love may ends
...if the beginnings of love and amorous politics are equally rosy, then the ends may be equally bloody.
laughter optimistic laughing
I am in general a very pessimistic person with an optimistic, day- to- day take on things. The bare facts of life are utterly terrifying. And yet, one can laugh. Indeed, one has to laugh precisely because of the darkness: the nervous laughter of the trenches.
art feelings might
Art cannot single-handedly create enthusiasm... it merely contributes to enthusiasm and guides us to be more conscious of feelings that we might previously have experienced only tentatively or hurriedly.
envy people generosity
The company of certain people may excite our generosity and sensitivity, while that of others awakens our competitiveness and envy.
thinking
What am I supposed to do here? What am I supposed to think?
drinking self drawing
The activities of drawing, eating and drinking, all involve assimilations by the self of desirable elements from the world, a transfer of goodness from without to within.
impossible worried minutes
Happiness is impossible for longer than 15 minutes. We are the descendants of creatures who, above all else, worried.