Quotes by David Brooks

“Ive 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 tasks. It happens sometimes wh...”

“This is how life works. Deciding whom to love is not an alien form of decision-making, a romantic interlude in the midst of normal life. Instead, decisions about whom to love are more intense versi...”

“The imagination simplifies our endless desires and causes us to fantasize that they can be fulfilled.”

“Across the centuries the moral systems from medival chivalry to Bruce Springsteen love anthems have worked the same basic way. They take immediate selfish interests and enmesh them within transcend...”

“They finally achieve a sort of outward-facing union.”

“In times of crisis, you get a public reaction that is incoherence on stilts. On the one hand, most people know that the government is not in the oil business. They don't want it in the oil business...”

“Women, in general, are less visually aroused than men, a trait that has nearly cut the market for pornography in half.”

“Moderation is based on the idea that things do not fit neatly together. Politics is likely to be a competition between legitimate opposing interests. Philosophy is likely to be a tension between co...”

“If there is one thing developmental psychologists have learned over the years, it is that parents dont have to be brilliant psychologists to succeed. They dont have to be supremely gifted teachers....”

“...Politics is an activity in which you recognize the simultaneous existence of different groups, interests and opinions. You try to find some way to balance or reconcile or compromise those intere...”

“Almost every successful person begins with two beliefs: the future can be better than the present, and I have the power to make it so.”

“Her genius derives from the fact that she was capable of the deepest feeling but also of the most discerning and disciplined thought.”

“I hope that in victory we are more grateful than proud.”

“As Paul Tillich put it, suffering introduces you to yourself and reminds you that you are not the person you thought you were.”

“Learning was a by-product of her search for pleasure”

“The shock of public hostility served as a stimulant. It made them acutely conscious of how society functioned.”

“There are heroes and schmucks in all worlds. The most important thing is whether you are willing to engage in moral struggle against yourself.”

“Fixate on whole cultures, not specific pieces of poverty. No specific intervention is going to turn around the life of a child or an adult in any consistent way, but if you can surround a person wi...”

“(A middle-class child's) parents didn't just give him money. They passed down habits, knowledge, and cognitive traits.”

“He read vividly.”