Alain de BottonThinkers

Agriculture is suggestive of culture whereas the city is suggestive of civilization. In the city are gathered, rightly or wrongly, the wealth and brains produced in the countryside. Civilization begins in the peasant's hut, but it comes to flower only in the towns.

The Arab-Israeli conflict is a conflict about status, a war between two peoples who feel deeply humiliated by the other, who want the other to respect them. Battles over status can be even more intractable than those over land or water or oil.

An Argument is like an eel: However logical, it may slip from the minds weak grasp unless fixed there by imagery and style.

An Argument's success critically depends on one's manner of presenting it.

Art is capable of teaching us how to suffer more successfully.

Art is a field holding out the promise of inner wholeness.

The Body holds the mind hostage to its whims and rhythms.

The Book is capable of sensitizing us. The more books we read, and the deeper their lessons sink into us, the more pairs of glasses we have. And those glasses enable us to see things we would have otherwise missed.

The Book is good when it leaves the reader asking: How did the author know that about me'.

Childhood is stored mainly not in photos, but in certain biscuits, lights of day, smells, textures of carpet.

The City is suggestive of civilization whereas agriculture is suggestive of culture. In the city are gathered, rightly or wrongly, the wealth and brains produced in the countryside. Civilization begins in the peasant's hut, but it comes to flower only in the towns.

Civilization is suggestive of the city whereas culture is suggestive of agriculture. In the city are gathered, rightly or wrongly, the wealth and brains produced in the countryside. Civilization begins in the peasant's hut, but it comes to flower only in the towns.

Communication is extraordinarily difficult. The communication of ideas is the great challenge of our time.