Don't despair: despair suggests you are in total control and know what is coming. You don't - surrender to events with hope. Alain de Botton More Quotes by Alain de Botton More Quotes From Alain de Botton The moment we cry in a film is not when things are sad but when they turn out to be more beautiful than we expected them to be. Alain de Botton cryfilmbeautiful Kant and Hegel are interesting thinkers. But I am happy to insist that they are also terrible writers. Alain de Botton hegelterribleinteresting Literature deeply stands opposed to the dominant value system-the one that rewards money and power. Writers are on the other side-they make us sympathetic to ideas and feelings that are of deep importance but can’t afford airtime in a commercialized, status-consciou s, and cynical world. Alain de Botton cynicalfeelingsideas One rarely falls in love without being as much attracted to what is interestingly wrong with someone as what is objectively healthy. Alain de Botton falling-in-lovehealthfall We need a home in the psychological sense as much as we need one in the physical: to compensate for a vulnerability. We need a refuge to shore up our states of mind, because so much of the world is opposed to our allegiances. We need our rooms to align us to desirable versions of ourselves and to keep alive the important, evanescent sides of us. Alain de Botton importantmindhome We study biology, physics, movements of glaciers... Where are the classes on envy, feeling wronged, despair, bitterness. Alain de Botton envyfeelingsclass Our disrespect for thinking: someone sitting in a chair, gazing out of a window blankly, always described as 'doing nothing'. Alain de Botton gazingdisrespectthinking Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than moving planes, ships or trains. Alain de Botton shipsjourneymoving It's hard loving those who don't much like themselves: "If you're so great, why would you think I'm so great. Alain de Botton self-hatredhardthinking Unhappiness can stem from having only one perspective to play with. Alain de Botton perspectiveplayhappiness 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. Alain de Botton attentionpeoplelooks Reputation matters so much only because people so seldom think for themselves. Alain de Botton matterpeoplethinking There's a whole category of people who miss out by not allowing themselves to be weird enough. Alain de Botton being-weirdmissingpeople There is always the option of being emotionally lazy, that is, of quoting. Alain de Botton quotinglazysloth There 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, disgusting.' And literature is a place where that stuff goes; where people whisper to each other across books, the writer to the reader. I think that stops you feeling lonely – in the deeper sense, lonely. Alain de Botton lonelybookthinking We are presented with an unpleasant choice between either committing to peculiar concepts about immaterial deities or letting go entirely of a host of consoling, subtle or just charming rituals for which we struggle to find equivalents in secular society. Alain de Botton secular-societystruggleletting-go A virtuous, ordinary life, striving for wisdom but never far from folly, is achievement enough. Alain de Botton achievementenoughordinary Paying tax should be framed as a glorious civic duty worthy of gratitude - not a punishment for making money. Alain de Botton paying-taxespunishmentgratitude The blunt large questions become connected to smaller, apparently esoteric ones. Alain de Botton bluntesotericconnected Memory is... similar to anticipation: an instrument of simplification and selection. Alain de Botton instrumentsanticipationmemories
