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
believe thinking people
.. if you asked most people whether they believed in love or not, they’d probably say they didn’t. Yet that’s not necessarily what they truly think. It’s just the way they defend themselves against what they want. They believe in it, but pretend they don’t until they’re allowed to. Most people would throw away all their cynicism if they could. The majority just never gets the chance.
stupid ideas people
The fear of saying something stupid (which stupid people never have) has censored far more good ideas than bad ones.
media people benefits
Social media has lots of benefits, but compared to Christianity, it tends to group people by interests. Religion puts you with people who have nothing in common except that you're human.
envy people generosity
The company of certain people may excite our generosity and sensitivity, while that of others awakens our competitiveness and envy.
thinking people matter
Reputation matters so much only because people so seldom think for themselves.
people forgiving goes-on
People who go on to be writers are those who can forgive themselves the horror of the first draft.
dream art people
The dream of the news is that it makes us care about other people and situations. But we cannot identify with people to whom we haven't been introduced. Humans will only respond to art, to people who are skilled in making you care.
people want dignity
The more dignity is widely and freely available in a society, the less people want to be famous.
hate thinking people
For paranoia about 'what other people think' : remember that only some hate, a very few love - and almost all just don't care.
night men people
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.
people looks attention
We may seek a fortune for no greater reason than to secure the respect and attention of people who would otherwise look straight through us.
long people forever
When work is not going well, it's useful to remember that our identities stretch beyond what is on the business card, that we were people long before we became workers - and will continue to be human once we have put our tools down forever.
numbers worry people
What should worry us is not the number of people that oppose us, but how good their reasons are for doing so.
couple people important
An argument in a couple: 2 people attempting to introduce each other to important truths - by panicked shouting.