(b. 1969– )
Swiss-born English writer, philosopher, and television presenter
Alain de Botton
What grief we’d avoid if we knew how to transfer emotional experience across generations, as we do money or scientific knowledge.
Twitter, April 9, 2010.
It takes a particular lack of imagination to feel no discomfort in the presence of a cleaner.
Twitter, April 9, 2010.
There are meetings which, when cancelled at the last minute, give one an ecstatic feeling of having cheated death for a little longer.
Twitter, April 21, 2010.
The present might be compared to a long-winded film from which memory and anticipation select photographic highlights.
The Art of Travel (New York: Vintage International, 2004), 15.
The reason to travel: there are inner transitions we can’t properly cement without a change of locations.
Twitter, April 12, 2010.
Original thoughts are like shy animals. We sometimes have to look the other way—towards a busy street or terminal—before they run out of their burrows.
A Week at the Airport (New York: Vintage, 2010), 42.
The continue to deny the significance of barely perceptible childhood abuses was to manifest the same robust and foolhardy common sense which had once led our ancestors to scoff at the notion that there might be deadly colonies of microorganisms thriving in drops of saliva no larger than pinheads.
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (New York: Pantheon, 2009), 122.
The only childhood truly deserving of the title “privileged” is one which imbues someone with a capacity to be a friend to themselves.
Twitter, August 21, 2010.
Developing an adequate response to rejection, neither defensive nor sentimental, lies at the heart of any serious attempt at sanity.
Twitter, 9:22 AM Sept 9, 2010.
When does a job feel meaningful? Whenever it allows us to generate delight or reduce suffering in others.
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (New York: Pantheon, 2009), 78.
Abstractly cheering thought: the millions of people around the world who will tonight sleep together for the first time.
Twitter, 2:22 PM Jan 27, 2010.