1,008 Quotes by Alain de Botton

...workplace dynamics are no less complicated or unexpectedly intense than family relations, with only the added difficulty that whereas families are at least well-recognised and sanctioned loci for hysteria reminiscent of scenes from Medea, office life typically proceeds behind a mask of shallow cheerfulness, leaving workers grievously unprepared to handle the fury and sadness continually aroused by their colleagues.

It is according to how we are able to answer the question of what we do (normally the first enquiry we will have to field in any new acquaintance) that the quality of our reception is likely to be decided.

The mind does most of its best thinking when we aren't there. The answers are there in the morning.

There is a devilishly direct relationship between the significance of an idea and how nervous we become at the prospect of having to think about it.

Hoe machtig onze technologie en hoe complex onze ondernemingen ook mogen zijn, het opmerkelijkste kenmerk van onze moderne arbeid is uiteindelijk misschien wel iets wat in onszelf zit, een aspect van onze mentaliteit: de wijdverbreide overtuiging dat ons werk ons gelukkig moet maken.

A 'good job' can be both practically attractive while still not good enough to devote your entire life to.

We study biology, physics, movements of glaciers... Where are the classes on envy, feeling wronged, despair, bitterness...

How different everything is for the craftsman who transforms a part of the world with his own hands, who can see his work as emanating from his being and can step back at the end of a day or lifetime and point to an object — whether a square of canvas, a chair or a clay jug — and see it as a stable repository of his skills and an accurate record of his years..

Intimacy is the capacity to be rather weird with someone - and finding that that's ok with them.