Alain de Botton
In receiving the Prix Européen de l'Essai Charles Veillon, Alain de Botton earned a recognition that stands alongside his Fellowship of the Royal Society of Literature as one of two formal distinctions recorded against his name.
Born on 20 December 1969 in Zurich, de Botton holds citizenship in both Switzerland and the United Kingdom. He works across English, German, and French. His education took him from the Dragon School through Harrow School, and then on to Gonville and Caius College and King's College London. From this foundation he built a career that encompasses writing, philosophy, journalism, and publishing.
De Botton works as a writer, philosopher, journalist, and publisher. Among his notable works is The Architecture of Happiness. Writing in English, German, and French, he operates across national and linguistic boundaries consistent with his Swiss and British citizenship. His activities as a publisher extend his role in intellectual life beyond his own authorship into the production and circulation of others' writing.
De Botton is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a distinction he holds alongside the Prix Européen de l'Essai Charles Veillon. These two recognitions, taken together with his dual citizenship and command of three European languages, situate him as a writer active across more than one national literary culture. The Architecture of Happiness remains among the works directly associated with his name.
Quotes by Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton's insights on:
The 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.
To look at the paper is to raise a seashell to one's ear and to be overwhelmed by the roar of humanity.
Rage is caused by a conviction, almost comic in its optimistic origins, however tragic in its effects, that a given frustration has not been written into the contract of life.
There are in our spots of time / That with distinct pre-eminence retain / A renovating virtue.. / That penetrates, enables us to mount, when high, more high, and lifts us up when fallen.
Modern society tends to emphasize buoyancy and cheerfulness but we have to admit that reality is, for the most part, about grief and loss.
The good life is not one immune to sadness but one in which suffering contributes to our development.
The solution as consumers is - perhaps surprisingly - to take adverts very, very seriously. We should ask ourselves what it is that we find lovely in them - the visions of friendship, togetherness, repose, or whatever. And then consider what would actually help us find these qualities in our lives.
If you're understood in maybe, I don't know, 60% of your soul by your partner, that's fantastic. Don't expect that it's going to be 100%. Of course you will be lonely.