Alain (real name Émile-Auguste Chartier). 1868 – 1951. French philosopher, littérateur and educator. One of the most widely read philosophers. Had influenced Camus and Sartre.
Quotes:
1. Pessimism is mood, optimism is will.
2. The world is ruled not by interests, but by passions.
3. It’s not hard to believe what it’s not hard to believe.
4. Punctuality is the courtesy of railway trains.
5. The rule of intellectual hygiene is never to entertain the same thought twice.
6. Man is busy with what he expects happiness from, but his real happiness is that he is busy.
7. All art is like a mirror in which a person knows and recognizes something about himself that he did not know before.
8. Resistance and obedience are two virtues of the citizen. Obedience ensures order; resistance confers freedom.
9. From an aesthetic point of view, there are only two ideal things in the world: watches and cats.
10. The pleasures of love make you forget about loving pleasures.
