“It is hope--with regard to our careers, our love lives, our children, our politicians, and our planet--that is primarily to blame for angering and embittering us. The incompatibility between the grandeur of our aspirations and the mean reality of our condition generates the violent disappointments which rack our days and etch themselves in lines of acrimony across our faces.”

British author and public speaker

Alain de Botton is a British author and public speaker known for writing about contemporary life and for making philosophy feel useful in everyday settings. His work often turns to common experiences and asks how ideas can help explain them. Among his best-known books are Essays in Love, which sold two million copies, How Proust Can Change Your Life, Status Anxiety, and The Architecture of Happiness.