Alain de Botton Quotes

Data can set you free.

Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding.

Finding patterns is the essence of wisdom

After all, the ultimate goal of all research is not objectivity, but truth.

The analysis of concepts is for the understanding nothing more than what the magnifying glass is for sight.

Time discovers truth.

The basic drive behind real philosophy is curiosity about the world, not interest in the writings of philosophers.

It's always good news when you're closer to the truth.

Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not.

If I can bring some light to bear on problems like that, I feel that people will be enlightened not only on the question but also on a way of approaching such questions.

Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.

A lot of the fun lies in trying to penetrate the mystery; and this is best done by saying over the lines to yourself again and again, till they pass through the stage of sounding like nonsense, and finally return to a full sense that had at first escaped notice.

Information is the resolution of uncertainty.

To understand is to perceive patterns.

I am one of the people who love the why of things.

Time is the father of truth, its mother is our mind.

I write to understand as much as to be understood.

This time next year,—this time ten years,—this time one hundred years,—probably it will be just as easy as we think it is to understand that glass of water, which now seems so plain and simple. I cannot doubt but that these things, which now seem to us so mysterious, will be no mysteries at all; that the scales will fall from our eyes; that we shall learn to look on things in a different way—when that which is now a difficulty will be the only commonsense and intelligible way of looking at the subject

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them

Happy is the one who knows the causes of things.

Data is not necessarily information. Information does not necessarily lead to knowledge. And knowledge is not always sufficient to discover truth and breed wisdom.

I like to open people's eyes.

Being is the great explainer.

I seek the truth.

Light itself is a revelation.