Alain De Botton Inspirational Quotes (321)

Out of the millions of people we live among, most of whom we habitually ignore and are ignored by in turn, there are always a few that hold hostage our capacity for happiness, whom we could recognize by their smell alone and whom we would rather die than be without.

Only as we mature does affection begin to depend on achievement.

Social media has lots of benefits, but compared to Christianity, it tends to group people by interests. Religion puts you with people who have nothing in common except that you're human.

There may be significant things to learn about people by looking at what annoys them most.

Being content is perhaps no less easy than playing the violin well: and requires no less practice.

to design means forcing ourselves to unlearn what we believe we already know, patiently to take apart the mechanisms behind our reflexes and to acknowledge the mystery and stupefying complexity of everyday gestures like switching off a light of turning on a tap

Writing isn’t a career choice. It’s self-medication that over time precipitates the madness it was meant to ward off.

Travel agents would be wiser to ask us what we hope to change about our lives rather than simply where we wish to go.

Most good thinking has its origin in fear.