We used to build temples, and museums are about as close as secular society dares to go in facing up to the idea that a good building can change your life (and a bad one ruin it).
Alain de BottonWe may seek a fortune for no greater reason than to secure the respect and attention of people who would otherwise look straight through us.
Alain de BottonThe price we have paid for expecting to be so much more than our ancestors is a perpetual anxiety that we are far from being all we might be.
Alain de BottonA 'good job' can be both practically attractive while still not good enough to devote your entire life to.
Alain de BottonThe true nature of bureaucracy may be nowhere more obvious to the observer than in a developing country, for only there will it still be made manifest by the full complement of documents, files, veneered desks and cabinets - which convey the strict and inverse relationship between productivity and paperwork.
Alain de Botton