Architects themselves tend to shy away from the word, preferring instead to talk about the manipulation of space. Alain de Botton More Quotes by Alain de Botton More Quotes From Alain de Botton 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. Alain de Botton issues real meaningful 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. Alain de Botton connections mean needs 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. Alain de Botton errors law ideas Responsible for wrapping the iron fist of authority in its velvet glove is Jane Axtell, head of the accountancy firm's Human Resources department. Alain de Botton gloves iron velvet Year-end financial statements express a truth about office life which is no less irrefutable yet also, in the end, no less irrelevant or irritating than an evolutionary biologist's proud reminder that the purpose of existence lies in the propagation of our genes. Alain de Botton year-end lying years Bad architecture is in the end as much a failure of psychology as of design. It is an example expressed through materials of the same tendencies which in other domains will lead us to marry the wrong people, choose inappropriate jobs and book unsuccessful holidays: the tendency not to understand who we are and what will satisfy us. Alain de Botton holiday jobs book These inventors were elevating the formulation of entrepreneurial ideas to the status of a visionary activity. Though forced to justify their efforts in the pragmatic language of venture capital, they were at heart utopian thinkers intent on transforming the world. Alain de Botton effort heart ideas what we call a home is merely any place that succeeds in making more consistenly available to us the important truths which the wider world ignores, or which our distracted and irresolute selves have trouble holding onto." (p123) Architecture of Happiness Alain de Botton important self home Despite the best efforts of critics and the hopes of authors, our tastes in books are probably as inherent & unbudgeable as those in food. Alain de Botton best-effort taste book We will cease to be angry once we cease to be so hopeful. Alain de Botton cease angry hopeful Every fall into love involves the triumph of hope over self-knowledge. We fall in love hoping we won't find in another what we know is in ourselves, all the cowardice, weakness, laziness, dishonesty, compromise, and stupidity. We throw a cordon of love around the chosen one and decide that everything within it will somehow be free of our faults. We locate inside another a perfection that eludes us within ourselves, and through our union with the beloved hope to maintain (against the evidence of all self-knowledge) a precarious faith in our species. Alain de Botton elude-us falling-in-love self Our bodies hold our minds hostage to their whims and rhythms. Alain de Botton whim body mind We should not be frightened by appearances. Alain de Botton frightened appearance should To cut out every negative root would simultaneously mean choking off positive elements that might arise from it further up the stem of the plant. We should not feel embarrassed by our difficulties, only by our failure to grow anything beautiful from them. Alain de Botton cutting beautiful mean 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. Alain de Botton ugly would-be world A simple problem of arithmetic: there are far more ambitions than there are grand destinies available. Alain de Botton destiny ambition simple I was foreign and Jewish, with a funny name, and was very small and hated sport, a real problem at an English prep school. So the way to get round it was to become the school joker, which I did quite effectively - I was always fooling around to make the people who would otherwise dump me in the loo laugh. Alain de Botton real sports school One of love's greatest drawbacks is that, for a while at least, it is in danger of making us happy. Alain de Botton drawbacks danger I was uncomfortable writing fiction. My love was the personal essay rather than the novel. Alain de Botton uncomfortable writing fiction What is fascinating about marriage is why anyone wants to get married. Alain de Botton fascinating married want
