Alain de Botton Quotes

I really never look at my health issues as 'Woe is me.' I've seen the reality of that. And it's not a pleasant thing.

Reading was my escape growing up in Ohio. Both of my parents lost their jobs when I was a teen, and it was hard. But I always had my books. Reading gave me a way of living different lives.

Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.

Don't forget: Beautiful sunsets need cloudy Skies.

I don't know if this is true to you but for me sometimes it gets so bad that anything else say like looking at a bird on an overhead power line seems as great as a Beethoven symphony. then you forget it and you're back again.

It was such a depressing time. I didn't look very depressed, maybe, but it was really dire. I made a conscious decision not to stop, but it could have gone the other way.

Find things beautiful as much as you can, most people find too little beautiful.

Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms you would never see the true beauty of their carvings.

People are all vulnerable in so many different ways. We go into survival mode a lot of times.

When you are at the bottom, you find beauty in such little things, and goodness in such little gestures. When I compare any struggle today to ones that I may have had in my childhood, there is nothing that can bring me down.

A lot of what is most beautiful about the world arises from struggle.

I suppose I didn't cry in all the cancer crap stuff because I felt I couldn't lose the battle, and part of the battle was holding myself together.

I come from a pretty tough background and I learned a long time ago not to be bothered.

Why am I so soft in the middle when the rest of my life is so hard?

These days cry out, as never before, for us to pay attention, so we can move through them and get our joy and pride back.

People expect me to cry, but I always laugh when things go wrong.

Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art.

I have to really enjoy the good things because it makes the bad things OK.

You have to have the lows in your life so you can deal with them.

I know there are five stages of grief, but my parents raised me to pull up my socks when times get tough.

If you don't have humor, you're not going to make it. You're going to be one of those people who walks around with your head about to explode.

Obviously, resilience matters. I was no stranger to adversity, but it's different when it's personal. Not something I would recommend.

Almost everyone I know is battling something, whether it's allergies or depression. Whatever it is, it makes you feel less than who you are. I believe part of life's challenge is to work through that.

I believe it is only when one comes out of adversity, that one starts to see real beauty.

Life is a beautiful struggle.