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 BottonWe should keep a careful diary of our moments of envy: they are our covert guides to what we should try to do next.
Alain de BottonOne's doing well if age improves even slightly one's capacity to hold on to that vital truism: "This too shall pass.
Alain de BottonIn a secularising world, art has replaced religion as a touchstone of our reverence and devotion.
Alain de BottonThe assumption is that life doesn't need to be navigated with lessons. You can just do it intuitively. After all, you only need to achieve autonomy from your parents, find a moderately satisfying job, form a relationship, perhaps raise some children, watch the onset of mortality in your parents' generation and eventually in your own, until one day a fatal illness starts gnawing at your innards and you calmly go to the grave, shut the coffin and are done with the self-evident business of life.
Alain de Botton