Alain de Botton Quotes

you can measure the size of a person by what makes him or her angry

People frequently bore me, sometimes amuse me, most often irritate me, but rarely intrigue me.

What came up at age 49 is I realized that of all the things I'm interested in, the thing I'm most interested in is figuring out what makes people tick, why people think the way they do, why they act the way they do. And I realized that music is such a great way to investigate why people do what they do.

I am an observer, I like to watch people. I am into psychology and people - how they act and such.

I think we all have different personalities... and even in relationships, we can be called psycho, and we can be called sweet, based on what the person feels about you.

In real life, I tend to yell at people a lot. Not because I'm bossy or mean, but because I'm frustrated.

My biggest job really is to figure other people out. I need to understand what makes a person tick.

I have only got down on to paper, really, three types of people: the person I think I am, the people who irritate me, and the people I'd like to be.

I have some anger issues.

A little girl who finds a puzzle frustrating might ask her busy mother (or teacher) for help. The child gets one message if her mother expresses clear pleasure at the request and quite another if mommy responds with a curt 'Don't bother me - I've got important work to do.'

Like all science, psychology is knowledge; and like science again, it is knowledge of a definite thing, the mind.

I like analyzing human behavior. It's complex. That's what keeps me going.

People are very complex. And for a psychologist, you get fascinated by the complexity of human beings, and that is what I have lived with, you know, in my career all of my life, is the complexity of human beings.

There's a fine line between angry and grumpy. Angry isn't nice, but grumpy is funny.

I think I enjoy playing human beings no matter the substance of their character.

We don't get the greatest tools to deal with anger. It's like, 'Hey, count to 10.' When someone really upsets me, how do I respond? I don't usually start counting to 10 and breathing deeply.

I think a lot of people are curious about what makes people do what they do, and I guess my curiosity isn't hidden in any way.

Women tell stories; men want answers. Guys get impatient when we drone on forever; we get frustrated when they tune out.

With any character I have played, there's infinite possibilities for how they might behave, depending on who they are talking to or how they react to things.

I just think I'm better equipped to make a study of human personality than trying to get into the mind of animals.

I'm somebody who's super into psychology and analysis and the human psyche and the human experience.

I'm interested in character and people and motivations and things like that.

The premise for me has always been that it's vulnerable people who do violent things. And the more vulnerable they feel, often, the more violent they are. But I think, you know, that's an idea that comes from history, from classical theater, for me.

The properties of people and the properties of character have almost nothing to do with each other. They really don't. I know it seems like they do because we look alike, but people don't speak in dialogue. Their lives don't unfold in a series of scenes that form a narrative arc.

I'm very interested in what makes people tick; people are so weird and complicated.