“Our exertions generally find no enduring physical correlatives. We are diluted in gigantic intangible collective projects, which leave us wondering what we did last year and, more profoundly, where we have gone and quite what we have amounted to....How different everything is for the craftsman who ... can step back at the end of a day or lifetime and point to an object--whether a square of canvas, a chair or a clay jug--and see it as a stable repository of his skills and an accurate record of his years, and hence feel collected together in one place, rather than strung out across projects which long ago evaporated into nothing one could hold or see.”

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About Alain de Botton

Swiss philosopher and writer of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, de Botton blends psychology, philosophy, and pop culture to explore human behavior and relationships. His work—including *The Consolations of Philosophy* and *Status Anxiety*—examines how we navigate love, art, and social expectations with wit and clarity.

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"Our exertions generally find no enduring physical correlatives. We ar…" — Alain de Botton | Daily Quotes