WIST Quotations

De Botton, Alain -- ‘On Pessimism,” lecture (3 Feb 2013)

Dave — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 18:00:20 +0000

Life is near-death experience.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
‘On Pessimism,” lecture (3 Feb 2013)
(Source)

Transcript here.

De Botton, Alain -- “Reclaiming the Intellectual Life for Posterity,” Liberal Education (Spring 2009)

Dave — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 14:41:06 +0000

This ideal University of Life … would never take the importance of culture for granted. It would know that culture is kept alive by a constant respectful questioning — not by an excessive and snobbish attitude of respect. Therefore, rather than leaving it hanging why one was reading Anna Karenina or Madame Bovary, an ideal course covering nineteenth-century literature would ask plainly “What is it that adultery ruins in a marriage?” Students in the ideal University of Life would end up knowing much the same material as their colleagues in other institutions, they would simply have learned it under a very different set of headings.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
“Reclaiming the Intellectual Life for Posterity,” Liberal Education (Spring 2009)
(Source)

De Botton, Alain -- Status Anxiety (2004)

Dave — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 01:13:56 +0000

Anxiety is the handmaiden of contemporary ambition.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
Status Anxiety (2004)
(Source)

De Botton, Alain -- Status Anxiety, “Philosophy” 1.5 (2004)

Dave — Fri, 10 Aug 2018 03:39:30 +0000

Cynics are, in the end, only idealists with awkwardly high standards.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
Status Anxiety, “Philosophy” 1.5 (2004)
(Source)

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 1 “Consolation For Unpopularity” (2000)

Dave — Thu, 12 Oct 2017 16:00:35 +0000

Not everyone is worth listening to.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 1 “Consolation For Unpopularity” (2000)
(Source)

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 1 “Consolation for Unpopularity” (2000)

Dave — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 02:23:29 +0000

The validity of an idea or action is determined not by whether it is widely believed or widely reviled but by whether it obeys the rules of logic. It is not because an argument is denounced by a majority that it is wrong nor, for those drawn to heroic defiance, that it is right.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 1 “Consolation for Unpopularity” (2000)

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 1 “Consolations for Unpopularity,” sec. 4 (2000)

Dave — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 15:45:11 +0000

There may be no good reason for things to be the way they are.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 1 “Consolations for Unpopularity,” sec. 4 (2000)
(Source)

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 1 “Consolations for Unpopularity” (2000)

Dave — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 03:37:23 +0000

Philosophy had supplied Socrates with convictions in which he had been able to have rational, as opposed to hysterical, confidence when faced with disapproval.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 1 “Consolations for Unpopularity” (2000)
(Source)

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 2 “Consolation For Not having Enough Money” (2000)

Dave — Thu, 19 Oct 2017 16:45:01 +0000

We don’t exist unless there is someone who can see us existing, what we say has no meaning until someone can understand, while to be surrounded by friends is constantly to have our identity confirmed; their knowledge and care for us have the power to pull us from our numbness. In small comments, many of them teasing, they reveal they know our foibles and accept them and so, in turn, accept that we have a place in the world.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 2 “Consolation For Not having Enough Money” (2000)
(Source)

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 3 “Consolation For Frustration” (2000)

Dave — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 18:35:25 +0000

Though the terrain of frustration may be vast — from a stubbed toe to an untimely death — at the heart of every frustration lies a basic structure: the collision of a wish with an unyielding reality.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 3 “Consolation For Frustration” (2000)

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 3 “Consolation for Frustration” (2000)

Dave — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 00:14:54 +0000

Rage is caused by a conviction, almost comic in its optimistic origins (however tragic in its effects), that a given frustration has not been written into the contract of life.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 3 “Consolation for Frustration” (2000)
(Source)

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 3 “Consolation for Frustration” (2000)

Dave — Thu, 05 Sep 2019 17:55:15 +0000

But reassurance can be the cruellest antidote to anxiety. Our rosy predictions both leave the anxious unprepared for the worst, and unwittingly imply that it would be disastrous if the worst came to pass. Seneca more wisely asks us to consider that bad things probably will occur, but adds that they are unlikely ever to be as bad as we fear.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 3 “Consolation for Frustration” (2000)
(Source)

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 3 “Consolation for Frustration”(2000)

Dave — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 23:34:08 +0000

Reason allows us to determine when our wishes are in irrevocable conflict with reality, and then bids us to submit ourselves willingly, rather than angrily or bitterly, to necessities. We may be powerless to alter certain events, but we remain free to choose our attitude towards them, and it is in our spontaneous acceptance of necessity that we find our distinctive freedom.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 3 “Consolation for Frustration”(2000)
(Source)

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 4 “Consolation for Inadequacy” (2000)

Dave — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 02:54:05 +0000

It is striking how much more seriously we are likely to be taken after we have been dead a few centuries.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 4 “Consolation for Inadequacy” (2000)
(Source)

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 4 “Consolation for Inadequacy” (2000)

Dave — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 22:57:01 +0000

A virtuous, ordinary life, striving for wisdom but never far from folly, is achievement enough.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 4 “Consolation for Inadequacy” (2000)
(Source)

Summarizing Montaigne.

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 4 “Consolation for Inadequacy” (2000)

Dave — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 20:58:53 +0000

We pick our friends not only because they are kind and enjoyable company, but also, perhaps more importantly, because they understand us for who we think we are.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 4 “Consolation for Inadequacy” (2000)
(Source)

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 4 “Consolation for Inadequacy” (2000)

Dave — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 21:40:48 +0000

Booksellers are the most valuable destination for the lonely, given the number of books that were written because authors couldn’t find anyone to talk to.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 4 “Consolation for Inadequacy” (2000)
(Source)

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 5 “Consolation for a Broken Heart” (2000)

Dave — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 15:46:26 +0000

The greatest works of art speak to us without knowing of us.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 5 “Consolation for a Broken Heart” (2000)
(Source)

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 6 “Consolation for Difficulties” (2000)

Dave — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 21:01:00 +0000

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 (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 6 “Consolation for Difficulties” (2000)
(Source)

Discussing Nietzsche.

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 6 “Consolation for Difficulties” (sec. 19) (2000)

Dave — Thu, 14 Oct 2021 20:06:11 +0000

Both Christianity and alcohol have the power to convince us that what we previously thought deficient in ourselves and the world does not require attention; both weaken our resolve to garden our problems; both deny us the chance to fulfilment.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 6 “Consolation for Difficulties” (sec. 19) (2000)
(Source)

Sometimes attributed to, but actually summarizing, Friedrich Nietzsche, who himself wrote of "the two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity" (Twilight of the Idols, "Things the Germans Lack" (sec. 2) (1888) [tr. Ludovici]).

De Botton, Alain -- The Course of Love, “Irreconcilable Desires” (2016)

Dave — Thu, 20 Jul 2017 19:52:40 +0000

The only people who can still strike us as normal are those we don’t yet know very well.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Course of Love, “Irreconcilable Desires” (2016)
(Source)

De Botton, Alain -- The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, ch. 4 (2009)

Dave — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 15:49:50 +0000

Most of us stand poised at the edge of brilliance, haunted by the knowledge of our proximity, yet still demonstrably on the wrong side of the line, our dealings with reality undermined by a range of minor yet critical psychological flaws (a little too much optimism, an unprocessed rebelliousness, a fatal impatience or sentimentality). We are like an exquisite high-speed aircraft which for lack of a tiny part is left stranded beside the runway, rendered slower than a tractor or bicycle.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, ch. 4 (2009)
(Source)

De Botton, Alain -- The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, ch. 9 “Entrepreneurship” (2009)

Dave — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 04:20:54 +0000

In reality, the likelihood of reaching the pinnacle of capitalist society today is only marginally better than were the chances of being accepted into the French nobility four centuries ago, though at least an aristocratic age was franker, and therefore kinder, about the odds. It did not relentlessly play up the possibilities open to all, … and so, in turn, did not cruelly equate an ordinary life with a failed one.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, ch. 9 “Entrepreneurship” (2009)
(Source)