“It is perhaps when our lives are at their most problematic that we are likely to be most receptive to beautiful things.”
More from Alain de Botton on Life
“What kills us isn't one big thing, but thousands of tiny obligations we can't turn down for fear of disappointing others.”
“Being content is perhaps no less easy than playing the violin well: and requires no less practice.”
“There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.”
“Learning to give up on perfection may be just about the most romantic move any of us could make.”
“You normally have to be bashed about a bit by life to see the point of daffodils, sunsets and uneventful nice days.”
“There's a whole category of people who miss out by not allowing themselves to be weird enough.”
“The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to.”
“Not being understood may be taken as a sign that there is much in one to understand.”
“The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts.”
“Feeling lost, crazy and desperate belongs to a good life as much as optimism, certainty and reason.”
Others on Life
Jonathan Safran Foer
22 quotes“One hundred years of joy can be erased in one second”
Mitch Albom
18 quotes“Behind all your stories is always your mother's story. Because hers is where yours begin.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
16 quotes“I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world.”
Henry Miller
15 quotes“We create our fate every day ... most of the ills we suffer from are directly traceable to our own behavior.”
Virginia Woolf
14 quotes“No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.”
Joseph Campbell
14 quotes“I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive...”
Cormac McCarthy
14 quotes“People were always getting ready for tomorrow. I didn't believe in that. Tomorrow wasn't getting ready for them. It didn...”
Lord Byron
14 quotes“The great art of life is sensation to feel that we exist even in pain.”
Carlos Ruiz Zafón
13 quotes“Most of us have the good or bad fortune of seeing our lives fall apart so slowly we barely notice.”
Margaret Atwood
13 quotes“Surviving Is the only warWe can afford”
Søren Kierkegaard
13 quotes“Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards.”
Paulo Coelho
13 quotes“And when I think about it, I guess it is true that people always arrive at the right moment at the place where someone a...”