Alain de Botton Quotes

I add this, that rational ability without education has oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education without natural ability.

The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.

There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.

I do not like being famous. I like being normal.

But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.

Purity engenders Wisdom, Passion avarice, and Ignorance folly, infatuation and darkness.

The foolish are like ripples on water, For whatsoever they do is quickly effaced; But the righteous are like carvings upon stone, For their smallest act is durable.

I would rather excel in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and possessions.

I take it to be from the greatest extremes, both in virtue and in vice, that the uniformly virtuous and reformed in life can derive the greatest and most salutary truths and impressions.

There is no sin except stupidity.

It is a great piece of folly to attempt to make anything out of me or my early life. It can all be condensed into a single sentence, and that sentence you will find in Gray's Elegy : "The short and simple annals of the poor." That's my life, and that's all you or anyone can make out of it.

According to the Stoics, all vice was resolvable into folly: according to the Christian principle, it is all the effect of weakness.

My life is extraordinary because it's so normal, but it's so 'extra' for some reason.

I'm an average girl with an average family - and I hope people can see that.

I've had such an ordinary life.

I'm just a normal person.

Whosoever loveth wisdom is righteous, but he that keepeth company with fowl is weird.

Knowledge, Virtue, Power are the victories of man over his necessities, his march to the dominion of the world.

Dolgan: ’Tis a wise thing to know what is wanted, and wiser still to know when ‘tis achieved. Rhuagh: True. And still wiser to know when it is unachievable, for then striving is folly.

I want a simple, ordinary life . . . like humans enjoy.

Willing is not enough, we must do.

Knowledge is folly unless grace guide it.

Who mix'd reason with pleasure, and wisdom with mirth: If he had any faults, he has left us in doubt.