David Brooks Quotes

75 quotes in 1334 categories

• We shouldn't just allow gay marriage. We should insist on gay marriage. We should regard it as scandalous that two people could claim to love…
• People used to complain that selling a president was like selling a bar of soap. But when you buy soap, at least you get the…
• 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, or…
• To explain the unknown by the known is a logical procedure; to explain the known by the unknown is a form of theological lunacy.
• How can we expect young people to be rooted in things such as character, morality and honesty? How is one supposed to be at once…
• A wise soul once declared that the ultimate power of the writer is that he has the choice of whom he wants to be co-opted…
• People want a reality that tells them they're right all of the time.
• We pretend to be a middle class, democratic nation, but in reality we love our blue bloods. ... We love the prep school manners, the…
• Highly educated young people are tutored, taught and monitored in all aspects of their lives, except the most important, which is character building. When it…
• The point of being a teacher is to do more than impart facts, it's to shape the way students perceive the world, to help a…
• The prevailing view is that geniuses are largely built, not born.
• It’s easy to see why politicians would be drawn to the populist pose. First, it makes everything so simple. The economic crisis was caused by…
• It’s not that Egypt doesn’t have a recipe for a democratic transition. It seems to lack even the basic mental ingredients.
• The rich don't exploit the poor. They just out-compete them.
• What family you were born into matters so much more than it did before in a perverse way.
• When you cover politics, you realize that knowing how to talk about character matters more and more. The way we hold ideas is more important…
• 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 Street…
• Stairway to Wisdom”) David Brooks detailed the needed ingredients to gaining a deep understanding of a social problem, beginning with the data and moving on…
• The brain is not the mind. It is probably impossible to look at a map of brain activity and predict or even understand the emotions,…
• Palin is smart, politically skilled, courageous and likable. Her convention and debate performances were impressive.

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