Author

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.

From Alain de Botton

You will often be in despair. You will sometimes think it's the worst decision in your life. That's fine. That's not a sign your marriage has gone wrong. It's a sign that it's normal; it's on track. And many of the hopes that took you into the marriage will have to die in order for the marriage to continue.

From Alain de Botton

The death of marriage has been announced so often and would seem so normal, in a sense. So what's surprising is the sheer longevity and tenacity of this institution.

From Alain de Botton

I don't want to say that our expectations of love are too high; it's just that if we're to meet them, we have to become a little more self-aware.

From Alain de Botton

I love novels where not much 'happens' but where the interest is in the ideas and analyses of characters.

From Alain de Botton

Everyone's more vulnerable than they seem, and I think men are more vulnerable. Once you get close to a man, the whole thing's a facade anyway. I think manhood is fragile.

From Alain de Botton

What I do know from my life is the phenomenon of saying, 'This is too small a thing to argue about', but then nevertheless finding oneself in that argument.

From Alain de Botton

I'm one of those introverted people who simply feels a lot better after spending time alone thinking through ideas and emotions. This is a sign, I've come to think, of a kind of emotional disturbance - a reaction to inner fragility. I wish I were more able to just act and do, rather than constantly have to retreat and examine and think.

From Alain de Botton

The greatest compliment I get about my writing is when people say, 'How did you know so much about me?' And of course, the answer is very simple: 'I just observed myself without sentimentality.'

From Alain de Botton

Emotional life is - alongside work - one of the great challenges of existence and is a theme that I keep returning to.

From Alain de Botton

Alain de Botton

Notable Quotes

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