The genius of religions is that they structure the inner life. 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 drawing awareness looks 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 information useless travel Once I began to consider everything as being of potential interest, objects released latent layers of value. Alain de Botton latent layers interest A successful work will draw out the features capable of exciting a sense of beauty and interest in the spectator. Alain de Botton interest successful exciting 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 dynamics quests happiness 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 fun happiness sex 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 intelligent eye believe 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 space dust life So many complaints boil down to the belly ache of the fragile, mortal, ignored ego in a vast and indifferent universe. Alain de Botton ignored ache ego My writing always came out of a very personal place, out of an attempt to stay sane. Alain de Botton sane writing One kind of good book should leave you asking: how did the author know that about me? Alain de Botton kind asking book 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 careers self writing Intuition is unconscious accumulated experience informing judgement in real time. Alain de Botton intuition judgement real 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 nervous ideas thinking 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 love two people 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 violin practice play 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-pass aging age .. 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 believe people thinking Getting to the top has an unfortunate tendency to persuade people that the system is OK after all. Alain de Botton tendencies unfortunate people
