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
reading book moments
Most of what makes a book 'good' is that we are reading it at the right moment for us.
gratitude punishment paying-taxes
Paying tax should be framed as a glorious civic duty worthy of gratitude - not a punishment for making money.
memories anticipation instruments
Memory is... similar to anticipation: an instrument of simplification and selection.
achievement doe affection
Only as we mature does affection begin to depend on achievement.
crazy maturity knowing
Maturity: knowing where you're crazy, trying to warn others of the fact and striving to keep yourself under control.
age aging this-too-shall-pass
One's doing well if age improves even slightly one's capacity to hold on to that vital truism: "This too shall pass.
differences despair stories
The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts.
confused ambition envy
Envy: a confused, tangled guide to one's own ambitions.
thinking mind demand
The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to do; the task can be as paralysing as having to tell a joke or mimic an accent on demand.
inspiring maturity opinion
Maturity: the confidence to have no opinions on many things.
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.
views quality world
We each appear to hold within ourselves a range of divergent views as to our native qualities.. And amid such uncertainty, we typically turn to the wider world to settle the question of our significance.. we seem beholden to affections of others to endure ourselves.
pain envy anxiety
In the gap between who we wish one day to be and who we are at present, must come pain, anxiety, envy and humiliation.
envy groups close-friends
We envy only those whom we feel ourselves to be like; we envy only members of our reference group. There are few successes more unendurable than those of our close friends.