David Brooks Quotes

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

I do think Donald Trump is a fundamentally unstabilizing force and that the people who swore to uphold the Constitution are going to have to take some measures at some point.

Donald Trump's ego is like a comet the size of Jupiter just traveling through the solar system, and we all have to be affected by its gravitational pull.

I think Donald Trump is going to find it very hard to do the kind of massive change he wants.

Donald Trump appalls me. I won't be shy about that.

Donald Trump's being authentic to what he ran on and what got elected.

Putin is someone who has been undermining the norms of what we consider the world order since he got into power and in increasing success.

What's interesting about the Trump administration is how bitterly divided they are in their attitudes towards Putin.

I think Trump's attention span is super low. I don't think he has the expertise to actually run a foreign policy.

Donald Trump didn't emerge from the orthodoxy of the Republican Party. And so there's going to be bigger differences than normal.

I think Barack Obama's foreign policy will be regarded more failure than success.

Two terrible behaviors don't make a good behavior.

Nonetheless, so whether it's unconstitutional or not [for judges to overruling presidents], I leave to others.

Every time Kellyanne Conway goes on TV, there's another fight with whoever's interviewing her that particular day.

I generally think the president [Donald Trump] should get his Cabinet picks, unless they're egregiously out of the range, either ethically or intellectually out of the range of what's acceptable.

Basically, less educated or high school-educated whites are going to Donald Trump. It doesn't matter what the guy does. And college-educated going to Hillary Clinton.

I think the Democrats are right to protest, but I don't think Jeff Sessions is so far out of the range of normalcy that he shouldn't be confirmed.

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

As for multimillionaires [in Donald Trump's Administration], a lot of us hope to be a multimillionaire some day. Again, spotty records, but it seems to be not without the range.

It's very hard to find an evangelical person under 45, let alone on some of the Christian college campuses, who has any tolerance for Donald Trump.

Everyone is dividing based on demographic categories.

Hillary Clinton continues to say Donald Trump's unacceptable, he doesn't have the character to be president. He is saying - continues saying she needs to be in prison.

[Donald Trump] has shifted - President [Barack] Obama has shifted American policy in a much more critical way in Israel with the settlements than the previous presidents.

Even in this nuclear thing, [ Donald Trump] says we should be stronger and expand. What does that mean? So, what is concrete in what he's saying?

I happen to think most people go into government do it for the right reasons and they really do things as they see them on the merits of the issues.

Democrats in environmental agencies tend to be more sensitive to environmental harm. And Republicans tend to be more sensitive to business harm.

People who don't like Trump really don't like Trump. And I guess I'm among them.

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

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.

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

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

He read vividly.

Humanities are the instructors of enchantment.

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

In 1950, the [Gallup organization] asked high school kids, are you a very important person? Then 12 percent said yes. Asked again in 2005, 80 percent said, yes, I'm a very important person.

Human beings are primarily defined by what we desire, not what we know.

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

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

What a wise person teaches is the smallest part of what they give. The totality of their life, of the way they go about it in the smallest details, is what gets transmitted.

To nurture your career, it makes sense to cultivate your strengths. To nurture your moral core, it is necessary to confront your weaknesses.

You can’t build rich lives simply by reading sermons or following abstract rules. Example is the best teacher. Moral improvement occurs most reliably when the heart is warmed,

The inner struggle against one’s own weaknesses is the central drama of life.

I make honorable things pleasant to children." A teacher from Sparta

They possess the self- effacing virtues of people who are inclined to be useful but don’t need to prove anything to the world:

[T]he road to character is built by confronting your own weakness.

It was easier to come to maturity when there were more well-defined philosophical options.

Just as he was slowly bringing order to his own internal life, he would also bring order to his language.

if you think you can organize your own salvation you are magnifying the very sin that keeps you from it.

In the evenings she got on her knees and inflicted her piety on her sister: