I like working with people. I believe change can only come through collaboration. Alain de Botton More Quotes by Alain de Botton More Quotes From Alain de Botton The very act of drawing an object, however badly, swiftly takes the drawer from a woolly sense of what the object looks like to a precise awareness of its component parts and particularities. Alain de Botton drawingawarenesslooks A danger of travel is that we see things at the wrong time, before we have had a chance to build up the necessary receptivity and when new information is therefore as useless and fugitive as necklace beads without a connecting chain. Alain de Botton informationuselesstravel Once I began to consider everything as being of potential interest, objects released latent layers of value. Alain de Botton latentlayersinterest A successful work will draw out the features capable of exciting a sense of beauty and interest in the spectator. Alain de Botton interestsuccessfulexciting If our lives are dominated by a search for happiness, then perhaps few activities reveal as much about the dynamics of this quest - in all its ardour and paradoxes - than our travels. Alain de Botton dynamicsquestshappiness Good sex isn't just fun, it keeps us sane and happy. Having sex with someone makes us feel wanted, alive and potent. Alain de Botton funhappinesssex He was a volatile mixture of confidence and vulnerability. He could deliver extended monologues on professional matters, then promptly stop in his tracks to peer inquisitively into his guest's eyes for signs of boredom or mockery, being intelligent enough to be unable fully to believe in his own claims to significance. He might, in a past life, have been a particularly canny and sharp-tongued royal advisor. Alain de Botton intelligenteyebelieve It is not just nature that defies us. Human life is as overwhelming... If we spend time in it [the vast spaces of nature], they may help us to accept more graciously the great, unfathomable events that molest our lives and will inevitably return us to dust. Alain de Botton spacedustlife So many complaints boil down to the belly ache of the fragile, mortal, ignored ego in a vast and indifferent universe. Alain de Botton ignoredacheego My writing always came out of a very personal place, out of an attempt to stay sane. Alain de Botton sanewriting One kind of good book should leave you asking: how did the author know that about me? Alain de Botton kindaskingbook Writing isn’t a career choice. It’s self-medication that over time precipitates the madness it was meant to ward off. Alain de Botton careersselfwriting Intuition is unconscious accumulated experience informing judgement in real time. Alain de Botton intuitionjudgementreal Bitterness: anger that forgot where it came from. Alain de Botton bitterness There is a devilishly direct relationship between the significance of an idea and how nervous we become at the prospect of having to think about it. Alain de Botton nervousideasthinking The more familiar two people become, the more the language they speak together departs from that of the ordinary, dictionary-defined discourse. Familiarity creates a new language, an in-house language of intimacy that carries reference to the story the two lovers are weaving together and that cannot be readily understood by others. Alain de Botton lovetwopeople Unnatural to expect that learning to be happy should be any easier than, say, learning to play the violin or require any less practice. Alain de Botton violinpracticeplay One's doing well if age improves even slightly one's capacity to hold on to that vital truism: "This too shall pass. Alain de Botton this-too-shall-passagingage .. 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. Alain de Botton believepeoplethinking Getting to the top has an unfortunate tendency to persuade people that the system is OK after all. Alain de Botton tendenciesunfortunatepeople
