Art was the very antithesis of crass moralism.
– Alain de Botton
Related Quotes:
- The essence of art is that its one case applies to thousands,’ knew Schopenhauer. – Alain de Botton
- A good half of the art of living is resilience. – Alain de Botton
- The gospel of Jesus Christ is an offense to both religion and irreligion. It can’t be co-opted by either moralism or relativism. – Timothy J Keller
- The same president who has insisted that core moralism drives him has brought America to its lowest moral standing in history. – Glenn Greenwald
- Most of what makes a book ‘good’ is that we are reading it at the right moment for us. – Alain de Botton
- Booksellers are the most valuable destination for the lonely, given the numbers of books written because authors couldn’t find anyone to talk to. – Alain de Botton
- Work begins when the fear of doing nothing at all finally trumps the terror of doing it badly. – Alain de Botton
- It is perhaps when our lives are at their most problematic that we are likely to be most receptive to beautiful things. – Alain de Botton
- You normally have to be bashed about a bit by life to see the point of daffodils, sunsets and uneventful nice days. – Alain de Botton
- To look at the paper is to raise a seashell to one’s ear and to be overwhelmed by the roar of humanity. – Alain de Botton
- We are humiliated by what is powerful and mean, but awed by what is powerful and noble. – Alain de Botton
- Maturity’ really means: being very unsurprised by, and calm around, pain and disappointment. – Alain de Botton
- The quickest way to stop noticing something, may be to buy it-”just as the quickest way to stop appreciating someone may be to marry him or her. – Alain de Botton
- The Anxiety of Sunday afternoon: your unlived lives and infinite possibility pressing upon the constraints of reality. – Alain de Botton
- It is as if we need to be reminded of convention in order properly to appreciate the wonder of being unguarded… – Alain de Botton
- The rich believe that their money will insulate them from setbacks and frustrations, and that’s one of the absurdist expectations of all. – Alain de Botton
- As victims of hurt, we frequently don’t bring up what ails us, because so many wounds look absurd in the light of day. – Alain de Botton
- One cannot read a novel without ascribing to the heroine the traits of the one we love. – Alain de Botton
- Never too late to learn some embarrassingly basic, stupidly obvious things about oneself. – Alain de Botton
- Importance of the random: keep brushing up against people, books, experiences we don’t yet know what to do with. – Alain de Botton
- Anyone who isn’t embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn’t learning enough. – Alain de Botton
- Distress at losing an object can be as much a frustration at the intellectual mystery of the disappearance as about the loss itself. – Alain de Botton
- Most business meetings involve one party elaborately suppressing a wish to shout at the other: ‘just give us the money’. – Alain de Botton
- The study of maps and the perusal of travel books aroused in me a secret fascination that was at times almost irresistible. – Alain de Botton
- The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to. – Alain de Botton
- Insomnia is his mind’s revenge for all the tricky thoughts he has carefully avoided during the daylight hours. – Alain de Botton
- Paying tax should be framed as a glorious civic duty worthy of gratitude – not a punishment for making money. – Alain de Botton
- We read the weird tales in newspapers to crowd out the even weirder stuff inside us. – Alain de Botton
- The best cure for one’s bad tendencies is to see them in action in another person. – Alain de Botton
- Just be yourself’ is about the worst advice you can give some people. – Alain de Botton
- Not being understood may be taken as a sign that there is much in one to understand. – Alain de Botton
- The most courageous act in politics is to try to understand your opponent. – Alain de Botton
- Maturity: knowing where you’re crazy, trying to warn others of the fact and striving to keep yourself under control. – Alain de Botton
- Being snappy is a symptom of an argument we forgot to have some way back. – Alain de Botton
- The continuing belief that the world is fundamentally just is implied in the very complaint that there has been an injustice. – Alain de Botton
- It is in dialogue with pain that many beautiful things acquire their value. – Alain de Botton
- Half the ingratitude and complacency in the world down to how slowly and imperceptibly most good and bad things unfold. – Alain de Botton
- We never envy another’s achievement more than when we know very little about how it was attained. – Alain de Botton
- The more people you have to ask for permission, the more dangerous a project gets. – Alain de Botton
- Most victories are, in the best way, acts of revenge. – Alain de Botton