David Brooks

The natural human reaction is to greet hatred with hatred, revenge by revenge. That's the natural genetic reaction.

— David Brooks

We actually have to have a government. We have to have people confirmed and put into office.

— David Brooks

The moral foundation of the society, the way we interact with each other is more fundamental than the Supreme Court.

— David Brooks

It’s not that Egypt doesn’t have a recipe for a democratic transition. It seems to lack even the basic mental ingredients.

— David Brooks

You have to have a plan, or else you're just creating a recipe for chaos.

— David Brooks

It's rare in an administration for a secretary of state and a secretary of defense to get along really well.

— David Brooks

The more attention Hillary Clinton gives to the country, the less people seem to like her.

— David Brooks

If Donald Trump wants to fire somebody for not getting Obamacare repealed, he should fire himself.

— David Brooks

When your institution is under threat, you feel you have a lot of hostility, you feel things are slipping away, you have…

— David Brooks

One of the things this world is finding is that emotion is the basis of reason. We really have to trust our…

— David Brooks

There are no free and democratic and wealthy countries in the world that have US rate of gun violence. We have to…

— David Brooks

Labor-rich manufacturing doesn't exist anymore. Manufacturing jobs are white-collar, Silicon Valley programmers or highly-skilled technicians. They are not going to employ lots…

— David Brooks

“You can't really know God if you ignore his laws, especially the ones that regulate the most intimate spheres of life. You…

— David Brooks

Populists hate journalists, they hate teachers, they hate lawyers, but they tend to like rich people. There's something deeply consistent.

— David Brooks

You figure out, what is the crucial issue facing the country right now? And for Trump, it was that the global economy…

— David Brooks

Sometimes, you go - you achieve a few things in life. I have achieved more career success than I ever experienced or…

— David Brooks

Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Marine Le Pen seem to have no respect for the institutions that were created after World War…

— David Brooks

[Mitch Daniels] was not a bad governor. He could be playful, but - or communicator.I'm just saying it will - I think…

— David Brooks

Donald Trump understands sense of belonging. And a lot of people think globalization, any time you make any particularity, you're sort of…

— David Brooks

“The wise person is there not to be walked over but to stand up for the actual truth, to call the other…

— David Brooks

Some people think humility is thinking lowly of yourself. Some people think it's not thinking about yourself. But, to me, the best…

— David Brooks

Russia has a very sophisticated, advanced attack on U.S. businesses and U.S. government and U.S. institutions. And it's not like Donald Trump…

— David Brooks

What you hear in focus groups and conversations, people will give you 20 minutes of rage about how the borders are out…

— David Brooks

“They turn nature into an achievement course, a series of ordeals and obstacles they can conquer. They go into nature to behave…

— David Brooks

“Government is not the only solution, but it is also not the only problem.”

— David Brooks

I think actually in any party it's a sign of general health to have different views, and especially on the subject of…

— David Brooks

Palin is smart, politically skilled, courageous and likable. Her convention and debate performances were impressive.

— David Brooks

I do think Hillary Clinton should have pivoted and say, I am change, I am change, because people do want some change.

— David Brooks

“Thankfulness,” the Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey, said, “is a soil in which pride does not easily grow.”9”

— David Brooks

The effectiveness of a group of people is not determined by their IQ but by how well they communicate.

— David Brooks

The prevailing view is that geniuses are largely built, not born.

— David Brooks

The teachers union may not like Betsy DeVos, but she's clearly within the range of Republican policy-makers.

— David Brooks

Woe to you who insults the intelligence community, if you're president.

— David Brooks

My colleague Ross Douthat wrote that any time you give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt, he always lets you down.

— David Brooks

I do think creating an open free-trade economy but with strong social support is the way to go.

— David Brooks

“Flourishing depends on unconscious skills that serve as a pre-requisite for conscious accomplishments.”

— David Brooks

The legitimacy of a war is not established by how it is organized but by what it achieves.

— David Brooks

Our emotions tell us what to value. They're like a little GPS system: Go that way. Don't go that way.

— David Brooks

If you're a soldier or marine in an Arab country, Islam is the solution. And you need to show respect.

— David Brooks

People tend to marry people with similar-width noses, eyes similarly apart, with complementary immune systems.

— David Brooks