Alain de Botton, writer, philosopher and founder of The School of Life, is a key thinker of our age.

His most recent book, Art as Therapy, explores how art may be used in everyday life to help lead a fulfilling and aware existence. Here he shares with welldoing.org his four thoughts on other subjects: money, politics, work, marriage


1.) When people say they want to get rich, is it really wealth they want, or is it the dignity, respect and fame that tends to come with it?

2.) If it is the latter, how could one remake the political system to distribute love and respect to the top and money to the bottom?

3.) Why is it so hard to discover one's vocation? How can we be so mysterious to ourselves?

4.) Marriage is an attempt to fuse together three things that don't naturally belong together: friendship, child-raising, the running of a household…