We may not agree with what religions are trying to teach us, but we can admire the institutional way in which they're doing it.
Alain de BottonI'm also interested in the modern suggestion that you can have a combination of love and sex in a marriage - which no previous society has ever believed.
Alain de BottonThe moment we cry in a film is not when things are sad but when they turn out to be more beautiful than we expected them to be.
Alain de BottonRather than saying 'I hate mess', it might draw more compassion to say, 'mess terrifies me as a harbinger of catastrophe'.
Alain de BottonBeing incomprehensible offers unparalleled protection against having nothing to say...but writing with simplicity requires courage, for there is a danger that one will be overlooked, dismissed as simpleminded by those with a tenacious belief that the impassable prose is a hallmark of intelligence.
Alain de Botton