Alain de Botton Quotes

I'm trying to find a way to eat up time without being destructive, 'cause that's my go-to, it seems.

The way I choose to live my own life rates time and space as real luxuries.

I learned early on to stay away from gossip magazines and reviews. That stuff just makes you unhappy, and I know actors that read everything that's written about them and they're miserable. You can choose what to let into your life.

It's all about how can you take care of yourself when furthering your life's goals and ambitions, and purpose and whatever you choose - family, career - to maintain a really balanced, whole, healthy outlook.

I don't watch the news because I understand that I'm like a science lab. Whatever I take in is how I feel.

There are more important things in life than boxing.

Just like any other human being is concerned about his or her personal life, I also need to think about my personal life.

I've become a lot more relaxed about my career, but maybe that's a part of growing up. I realise there are things I hold dear and value, aside from professional achievements.

I try to do things that make me feel good. I go to yoga classes, drink a lot of water, eat healthily and keep things like alcohol and coffee to weekends. I don't overdo anything.

I got to a stage where tennis was the only thing in my life, and I didn't like that.

If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to what we want to get out of life that we give to the question of what to do with a two weeks' vacation, we would be startled at our false standards and the aimless procession of our busy days.

Whenever I'm trying to decide how to spend my precious time, energy, or money, I ask myself a series of questions. 'Will this broaden or deepen my relationships?' 'Will this contribute to an atmosphere of growth in my life?' 'Is this a way to 'Be Gretchen?' and 'Will this help connect me to my past?'

I have a more developed sense of my priorities. Life has so much more meaning now.

To transcend limitations and form positive new patterns of life based on who you know you can be rather than who you were yesterday, you must give up the modes of thinking, feeling and behaving that only keep you chained to your past.

My mum was critical in getting me to recognise very early on that although what I was doing was pretty serious, quite selfish, and probably to most people pretty obsessive, there actually was more to life than running quickly twice round a track.

Look for a long time at what pleases you, and a longer time at what pains you.

It's time to take care of our own.

Is my body a temple, or is my life a temple? I'm definitely in the latter category, and I think my life has been better since thinking that way.

I wouldn't give people advice except to share with them what I'm doing, which is, You're alive - stay alive.

Self-talk, for me, has been the biggest thing in my life. A lot of us have a dialogue that is crap. It's a crappy dialogue. We live in a world right now that is very external. Everything is very on the surface. Superficial. Everything. And what we're telling ourselves is what we see on TV.

Create a ladder of values and priorities in your life, reminding yourself of what really matters to you.

I feel like knowledge is power: If you know how to take care of yourself, you can be a better version of yourself.

Every one of us in this country is based on you've gotta take care of yourself.

Figure out what questions you'd ask to see if you were happy with your life. Then wake up every day and live intentionally, so you're happy with the answers at the end.

I have to take care of myself in order to live life the way I want to. It's important to have rest days. But in the long run, if I don't work out for, like, three days, I feel worse, not better.