David Brooks
David Brooks
Conservative political columnist for the New York Times. He also wrote for the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times and provided political commentary for National Public Radio (NPR) and the PBS NewsHour.
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth11 August 1961
CityToronto, Canada
CountryUnited States of America
character people connections
The people who really have character make deep, unshakable connections to something outside themselves.
thinking trying get-better
I do think trying to live each day as a bunch of moral occasions, did I live up to what I would hope, and, if I didn't, what can I do tomorrow to be a little better, I do think we can improve. We get better at life as we get older.
thinking impossible persons
It's impossible for one person to think of everything.
kickers
I'm not a kicker and a screamer.
civilization president faults
If I had to fault President [Barack] Obama, I would say that sometimes governs like a visitor from a morally superior civilization.
issues people giving
People who give money in large amount in politics are basically not altruistic.They have some issue. They have some interest.It may be preserving carried interest. But it's not altruistic.
thinking two people
I think there are two basic approaches you can use for campaign finance. One is complete openness, everybody knows absolutely everything, but no limits. But you let people decide.The other is just have a national public system.
people giving amount
People who give money in large amount in politics are basically not altruistic.
buying furniture looks
If you do something really cognitively demanding, like buying furniture, it turns out buying furniture is one of the most difficult things we do. Go into a furniture store and look at a sofa.
media culture jackals
I'm thankful that we live in a crassly commercial, polarized culture, so media jackals like me have a lot of work to do.
writing brain levels
The brain writes the autobiography of our species at the conscious level.
art emotional giving
We don't have the choice to control our emotions, but we do have the power to educate our emotions. And we do that through literature and through art and music to give ourselves a repertoire of emotional experiences.
gps littles way
Our emotions tell us what to value. They're like a little GPS system: Go that way. Don't go that way.
talking views world
I came to the conclusion is that we have a very shallow view of human nature in the policy world. We're really good at talking about material things, really bad at talking about emotions, really good at stuff we can count, really bad at the deeper stuff that actually drives behavior.