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David Brooks Quotes

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Famous David Brooks Quotes

“Self-actualization is what educated existence is all about. For members of the educated class, life is one long graduate school. When they die, God meets them at the gates of heaven, totes up how many fields of self-expression they have mastered, and then hands them a divine diploma and lets them in.”

LongSelfHandsSchoolLife IsDiesHeavenExistenceClassFieldsDivineExpressionMembersEducatedGatesGraduatesSelf ExpressionIntellectualismSelf ActualizationGraduate SchoolDiplomaActualizationGates Of HeavenTotes
Book:The Paradise Suite: Bobos in Paradise and On Paradise Drive
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“If you do have to look at polls, you should do it no more than once every few days, to get a general sense of the state of the race. I've seen the work on information overload, which makes people depressed, stressed and freezes their brains. I know that checking the polls constantly is a recipe for self-deception and anxiety.”

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Author:David Brooks
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“We pretend to be a middle class, democratic nation, but in reality we love our blue bloods. ... We love the prep school manners, the aristocratic calm, the Skull and Bones mystery, the dappled lawns stretching before New England summer homes. How else can be explained the Bush vs. Kerry match-up that confronts us this year?”

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Author:David Brooks
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“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 a complex web of factors, including global imbalances caused by the rise of China. But with the populist narrative, you can just blame Goldman Sachs.”

FirstsWould BeEasySimpleEconomicPoliticianCrisisBlameComplexesIncludingChinaFactorsNarrativeImbalancePopulistEconomic CrisisGoldman SachsRise Of China
Author:David Brooks
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“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 to first-hand accounts. The highest rung on his stairway, though, went beyond those: “Empathy opens you up to absorb the good and the bad. Love impels you not just to observe but to seek union—to think as another thinks and feel as another feels.”

ThinkingFeelsFirstsProblemHandsMovingSocialUnderstandingNeededHighestEmpathyAccountsUnionsDataIngredientsBrooksSocial ProblemsStairwaysBad LoveDeep Understanding
Author:David Brooks
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“Your DVD collection is organized, and so is your walk-in closet. Your car is clean and vacuumed, your frequently dialed numbers are programmed into your cordless phone, your telephone plan is suited to your needs, and your various gizmos interact without conflict. Your spouse is athletic, your kids are bright, your job is rewarding, your promotions are inevitable, everywhere you need to be comes with its own accessible parking. You look great in casual slacks.”

WorldNeedsLooksKidsJobsAmericaWalksNumbersPlansModernCarConflictCleanPhonesVariousInevitableOrganizedCollectionsClosetsSpouseTelephonesModern WorldAthleticPromotionCasualParkingDvds
Book:On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense
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“Students are too busy jumping through the next hurdle in the résumé race to figure out what they really want. They are too frantic tasting everything on the smorgasbord to have life-altering encounters. They have a terror of closing off options. They have been inculcated with a lust for prestige and a fear of doing things that may put their status at risk.”

WantMayHas BeensNextRaceRiskFiguresStudentsBusyTerrorLustEncountersJumpingClosingToo BusyPrestigeTastingHurdleFranticLife AlteringClosing Off
Author:David Brooks
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“Bill Clinton pandered by telling you what you wanted to hear. John Kerry panders by never telling you what you don't want to hear. This is negative pandering; he talks a lot without really ruling anything out so you can draw your own conclusions.....Kerry has been talking for years, and yet such is the thicket of his verbiage that he has achieved almost complete strategic ambiguity.”

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Author:David Brooks
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“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 versions of the sorts of decisions we make throughout the course of our existence, from what kind of gelato to order to what career to pursue. Living is an inherently emotional business.”

KindFormOrderCoursesDecisionLove IsExistenceCareersEmotionalNormalIntenseVersionsPursueAliensMidstDecision MakingNormal LifeDecisions We MakeGelato
Author:David Brooks
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“Big Brother is not the only danger facing the country. Another is the rising tide of distrust, the corrosive spread of cynicism, the fraying of the social fabric and the rise of people who are so individualistic in their outlook that they have no real understanding of how to knit others together and look after the common good.”

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Author:David Brooks
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