Alain de Botton

"I'm also interested in the modern suggestion that you can have a combination of love and sex in a marriage - which no previous society has ever believed."

"What is fascinating about marriage is why anyone wants to get married."

"The Arab-Israeli conflict is also in many ways a conflict about status: it's a war between two peoples who feel deeply humiliated by the other, who want the other to respect them. Battles over status can be even more intractable than those over land or water or oil."

"Status anxiety definitely exists at a political level. Many Iraqis were annoyed with the US essentially for reasons of status: for not showing them respect, for humiliating them."

"We may seek a fortune for no greater reason than to secure the respect and attention of people who would otherwise look straight through us."

"I'm also interested in the modern suggestion that you can have a combination of love and sex in a marriage - which no previous society has ever believed."