Quotes by David Brooks

“To explain the unknown by the known is a logical procedure; to explain the known by the unknown is a form of theological lunacy”

“America is not just a democracy, it represents a certain culture of competitive mobility and personality aspirations, politics is not merely a clash of interests, but a clash of dreams.”

“This death cult has no reason and is beyond negotiation. This is what makes it so frightening. This is what causes so many to engage in a sort of mental diversion. They dont want to confront this horror. So they rush off in search of more comprehensible things to hate.”

“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 soap. In this campaign you just get two guys telling you they really value cleanliness.”

“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 comes to this, most universities leave them alone.”

“We ought to give people who dont want to go back to New Orleans the means to disperse into middle-class areas nationwide.”

“It was kind of a spark, a spark that we needed at that point. He was so effective, we just said going into the next game, hes got to get the football. So thats kind of how we got headed in the direction that weve arrived at now was just that second half and his performance then.”

“It gave the offensive line the confidence they needed and they started getting better as the game went on. Hes just a punishing runner. It hurts to tackle him. We dont get any negative yardage when he runs the ball because he is such a powerful runner.”

“Sitting on the airplane and looking out the window was terrible, ... And three days of doing nothing, really, by Bush was terrible…. I’m angry at the guy.”

“The White House has to be breathing a sigh of relief, and the American people have to know that the wave of hysteria, the wave of paranoia, the wave of charges and allegations about Karl Rove and everybody else so far is unsupported by facts,”

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 tasks. It happens sometimes when you are lost in a hard challenge, or when an artist or a craftsman becomes one with the brush or the tool. It happens sometimes while you’re playing sports, or listening to music or lost in a story, or to some people when they feel enveloped by God’s love. And it happens most when we connect with other people. I’ve come to think that happiness isn’t really produced by conscious accomplishments. Happiness is a measure of how thickly the unconscious parts of our minds are intertwined with other people and with activities. Happiness is determined by how much information and affection flows through us covertly every day and year.

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 transcendent, spiritual meanings. Love becomes a holy cause, an act of self-sacrifice and selfless commitment.But texting and the utilitarian mind-set are naturally corrosive toward poetry and imagination. A coat of ironic detachment is required for anyone who hopes to withstand the brutal feedback of the marketplace. In todays world, the choice of a Prius can be a more sanctified act than the choice of an erotic partner.This does not mean that young people today are worse or shallower than young people in the past. It does mean they get less help. People once lived within a pattern of being, which educated the emotions, guided the temporary toward the permanent and linked everyday urges to higher things. The accumulated wisdom of the community steered couples as they tried to earn each others commitment.Today there are fewer norms that guide that way. Todays technology seems to threaten the sort of recurring and stable reciprocity that is the building block of trust.

Learning was a by-product of her search for pleasure

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 dont want it in the oil business. They know there is nothing a man in Washington can do to plug a hole a mile down in the gulf.On the other hand, they demand that the president take control. They demand that he hold press conferences, show leadership, announce that the buck stops here and do something. They want him to emote and perform the proper theatrical gestures so they can see their emotions enacted on the public stage.They want to hold him responsible for things they know he doesnt control. Their reaction is a mixture of disgust, anger, longing and need. It may not make sense. But it doesnt make sense that the country wants spending cuts and doesnt want cuts, wants change and doesnt want change.

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 competing half truths. A personality is likely to be a battleground of valuable but incompatible traits.

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

They finally achieve a sort of outward-facing union.

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.

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