Alain de Botton Quotes

Success is not two cars or a swimming pool. It's the approval of your peers.

I wanted to have money; I wanted to be special; I wanted people to like me; I wanted to be famous.

Having the respect of your peers means the world to me.

It's nice to be included in people's fantasies but you also like to be accepted for your own sake.

It's never bad to be liked, and who doesn't feel good being liked, but that can't be your end game goal.

I still need the camera because it is the only reason anyone is talking to me.

We think of ourselves as our titles or our jobs or our position in a family. We depend on being praised by others. But something happens when that praise is undermined.

I am telling you, if you ever wanted an ego boost, leave your job and then, six months later, come back for a day. People will treat you like you're a princess.

Once you figure out what respect tastes like, it tastes better than attention. But you have to get there.

He who does not think much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines.

It is difficult to esteem a man as highly as he would wish.

I have always wanted to be liked and respected.

I'm not a walking fleet of vanity vans any more than I'm a walking, talking multi-star cast. I might want an entourage, but so far, it is entirely eluding me.

Irrespective of my father's support, if people don't like me there's nothing my family status can do about it.

A lot of unconfident kids do tricks because it's the quickest route to impressing people. You can stand behind something amazing and people think you're amazing.

My whole life, I've been trying to make people proud.

I've always just wanted people to look at me.

I feel I have to earn everybody's respect.

I don't need to get any validation by someone else who sits next to me in first class. If you think a seat in first class makes you a star, then you're not one.

But few prize honour more than money.

Never esteem people (including yourself) more because they have money, nor think less of anyone (including yourself) because they lack it. Virtue is the only just reason for respecting anyone, lack of virtue the only reason for holding anyone in low regard.

Decide whether you want to be liked or admired.

I do like some of the perks, like being, recognized, especially if I've had my makeup done and I'm going to be photographed and people admire me. Who wouldn't like that?

I got a lot of things that society had promised would make me whole and fulfilled - all the things that the culture tells you from preschool on will quiet the throbbing anxiety inside you - stature, the respect of colleagues, maybe even a kind of low-grade fame.

My literary success meant nothing to me.