Our system is not only based on rules, but a series of self-restraints that we won't be as barbaric as we could… — David Brooks Copy Share Image
Friendship allows you to see your own life but with a second sympathetic self. — David Brooks Copy Share Image
If you do have to look at polls, you should do it no more than once every few days, to get a… — David Brooks Copy Share Image
I've come to think that flourishing consists of putting yourself in situations in which you lose self-consciousness and become fused with other… — David Brooks Copy Share Image
I would have swapped out Donald Trump's frontal cortex for somebody else's for a little more self-control. — David Brooks Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Jim Stavridis is the former NATO commander who is sometimes on people's lists, also very plausible, self-possessed, someone with sobriety. — David Brooks Copy Share Image
Most people don't form a self and then lead a life. They are called by a problem, and the self is constructed… — David Brooks Copy Share Image
In my view, success is earned externally by being better than other people. But character, that sort of unfakeable goodness, is earned… — David Brooks Copy Share Image
Economists sometimes do try to reduce behavior to law-like predictability. But people respond differently to different primes, to different contexts even from… — David Brooks Copy Share Image
Self-actualization is what educated existence is all about. For members of the educated class, life is one long graduate school. When they… — David Brooks Copy Share Image
The brain is not the mind. It is probably impossible to look at a map of brain activity and predict or even understand the… — David Brooks Copy Share Image
When you're running for president, you're a guest in the living room for four years. And if people don't think you're going to be… — David Brooks Copy Share Image
“I’ve come to think that flourishing consists of putting yourself in situations in which you lose self-consciousness and become fused with other people, experiences,… — David Brooks Copy Share Image
We have rapidly increasing technology, which is making life very good for people who are good at using words, and not so good for… — David Brooks Copy Share Image
I think Barack Obama's foreign policy will be regarded more failure than success. — David Brooks Copy Share Image
If you know that most processing is below the level of awareness, you learn the value of sleep. You're brain is working on the… — David Brooks Copy Share Image
Trade has suddenly become massively unpopular. I think that's massively unjust. I think free trade has been wonderful for America on balance. — David Brooks Copy Share Image
Politics is based on social identity, and so, again, there is going to be differences between rural and urban and between left and right. — David Brooks Copy Share Image
It’s worth noting that you can devote your life to community service and be a total schmuck. You can spend your life on Wall… — David Brooks Copy Share Image
I do think Donald Trump is a fundamentally unstabilizing force and that the people who swore to uphold the Constitution are going to have… — David Brooks Copy Share Image
