Top 10 David Brooks Quotes at QuotationFun

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The political history of the 20th century is the history of social-engineering projects executed by well-intentioned people that began well and ended badly. There were big errors like communism, but also lesser ones, like a Vietnam War designed by the best and the brightest, urban renewal efforts that decimated neighborhoods, welfare policies that had the unintended effect of weakening families and development programs that left a string of white elephant projects across the world. These experiences drove me toward the crooked timber school of public philosophy: Michael Oakeshott, Isaiah Berlin, Edward Banfield, Reinhold Niebuhr, Friedrich Hayek, Clinton Rossiter and George Orwell. These writers — some left, some right — had a sense of epistemological modesty. They knew how little we can know. They understood that we are strangers to ourselves and society is an immeasurably complex organism. They tended to be skeptical of technocratic, rationalist planning and suspicious of schemes to reorganize society from the top down.

"The Big Test", New York Times, February 23, 2009.

Politics, Patriotism

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Our moral and economic system is based on individual responsibility. It’s based on the idea that people have to live with the consequences of their decisions. This makes them more careful deciders. This means that society tends toward justice - people get what they deserve as much as possible.

"Money for Idiots", New York Times, February 19, 2009.

Politics, Patriotism, Ethics, Legal

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The nation’s economy is not just the sum of its individuals. It is an interwoven context that we all share. To stabilize that communal landscape, sometimes you have to shower money upon those who have been foolish or self-indulgent. The greedy idiots may be greedy idiots, but they are our countrymen. And at some level, we’re all in this together. If their lives don’t stabilize, then our lives don’t stabilize.

"Money for Idiots", New York Times, February 19, 2009.

Money, Politics, Patriotism, Ethics

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The rich don't exploit the poor. They just out-compete them.

Politics, Patriotism

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Sex is more explicit everywhere...except in real life.

Politics, Sex, Patriotism

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We should insist on gay marriage. We should regard it as scandalous that two people could claim to love each other and not want to sanctify their love with marriage and fidelity. It's going to be up to conservatives to make the important, moral case for marriage, including gay marriage.

Love, Marriage, Respect, Ethics

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People want reality that tells them how right they are all the time.

Politics, Patriotism

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In the afternoons he is in the habit of going into crowded rooms and making everybody else feel inferior. The evenings are reserved for extended bouts of name-dropping.

Politics, Patriotism

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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 don't want to confront this horror. So they rush off in search of more comprehensible things to hate.

Death, Politics, Patriotism

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When you cover politics, you realize that knowing how to talk about character matters more and more. The way we hold ideas is more important than the ideas.

Politics, Patriotism

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