3 interesting quotes from The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton
A BOOK IS THE BEST FRIEND
Michel de Montaigne says in his Essays: 'Many things that I would not care to tell any individual man I tell to the public, and for knowledge of my most secret thoughts, I refer my most loyal friends to a bookseller's stall.'
And yet we should be grateful for the paradox. Booksellers are the most valuable destination for the lonely, given the numbers or books that were written because authors couldn't find anyone to talk to.'
DOMESTIC DISAPPOINTMENT
'We may take this in two ways; that no one is genuinly marvelous, but that only families and staff are close enough to discern the disappointing truth. Or that many people are interesting, but that if they are close to us in age and place, we are likely not to take them too seriously, on account of a curious bias against what is at hand.'
WHAT ARE WE?
'Schopehauer was unimpressed by Goethe's tip to draw plesure from life by attaching a value to the world.'
This is a contradicting quote Schopehauer chose from Chamfort: 'Better to accept men for what they are, than to take them to be what they are not.'
