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Alain de Botton Quotes about Identity

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People who hold important positions in society are commonly labelled somebodies, and their inverse nobodies-both of which are, of course, nonsensical descriptors, for we are all, by necessity, individuals with distinct

People who hold important positions in society are commonly labelled "somebodies," and their inverse "nobodies"-both of which are, of course, nonsensical descriptors, for we are all, by necessity, individuals with distinct identities and comparable claims on existence. Such words are nevertheless an apt vehicle for conveying the disparate treatment accorded to different groups. Those without status are all but invisible: they are treated brusquely by others, their complexities trampled upon and their singularities ignored.

Alain de Botton
People, Important, Identity

The attentions of others matter to us because we are afflicted by a congenital uncertainty as to our own value, as a result of which affliction we tend to allow others' appraisals to play a determining role in how we see ourselves. Our sense of identity is held captive by the judgements of those we live among.

Alain de Botton
Play, Judgement, Identity
Alain De Botton (2008). “Status Anxiety”, p.8, Vintage

By travelling across frontiers, on horseback and in the imagination, Montaigne invited us to to exchange local prejudices and the self division they induced for less constraining identities as citizens of the world.

Alain de Botton
Self, Imagination, Identity
"The Consolations of Philosophy". Book by Alain de Botton, 2000.

We don't exist unless there is someone who can see us existing, what we say has no meaning until someone can understand, while to be surrounded by friends is constantly to have our identity confirmed; their knowledge and care for us have the power to pull us from our numbness. In small comments, many of them teasing, they reveal they know our foibles and except them and so, in turn, accept that we have a place in the world.

Alain de Botton
Numbness, Identity, World
"The Consolations of Philosophy". Book by Alain de Botton, 2000.

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