Quotes from David Brooks

If done correctly, these techniques can allow the Bobo pilgrim to have 6 unforgettable moments a morning, 2 rapturous experiences over lunch, 1.5 profound insights in the afternoon (on average), and .667 life-altering epiphanies after each sunset.

Great creative minds] think like artists but work like accountants.

In 1948, psychologists asked more than 10,000 adolescents whether they considered themselves to be a very important person. At that point, 12 percent said yes. The same question was asked in 2003, and this time it wasn't 12 percent who considered themselves very important, it was 80 percent.

You lose the ability to say a hundred noes for the sake of one overwhelming and fulfilling yes.

Populism and elitism are the same thing. They are class prejudices, crude class prejudices that so-and-so, because they are uneducated, is less worthy, or so-and-so, because they are richer or more educated, is unworthy.

The struggle against the weakness in yourself is never a solitary struggle. No person can achieve self-mastery or his or her own.

A person who is interrupted while performing a task takes 50% more time to complete it and make 50% more errors.

Online life is so delicious because it is socializing with almost no friction.

living life in a pragmatic, utilitarian manner turns you into a utilitarian pragmatist. The "How do I succeed?" questions quickly eclipse the "Why am I doing this?" questions.

your conversation consists mostly of descriptions of how busy you are. Suddenly you're a chilly mortal, going into hyper-people-pleasing mode anytime you're around your boss. You spend much of your time mentor shopping, trying to find some successful older person who will answer all your questions and solve all your problems.

While it pretends not to, it subliminally sends the message that those who are smarter and more accomplished are actually worth more than those who are not.

familiar process before they can acknowledge how comprehensive their problem is. First, they deny that there's something wrong with their life. Then they intensify their efforts to follow the old failing plan. Then they try to treat themselves with some new thrill: They have an affair, drink more, or start doing drugs. Only when all this fails do they admit that they need to change the way they think about life.

as people become more dependent on God, their capacity for ambition and action increases. Dependency doesn't breed passivity; it breeds energy and accomplishment.

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

Humility is awareness that you are an underdog in the struggle against your own weakness.

holding people responsible. People born into the most chaotic situations can still be asked the same questions: Are you living for short-term pleasure or long-term good? Are you living for yourself or for your children? Do you have the freedom of self-control or are you in bondage to your desires? The Cost of Relativism, NYT article 3/10/15

The imagination offers up ideal visions of experiences which then leave us disappointed when the visions don't come true.

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

People who live according to the pure code of honor are not governed by the profit motive; they are governed by the thymotic urge, the quest for recognition. They seek the sort of glory that can be won only by showing strength in confrontation with death.

When most people think about the future, they dream up ways that they might live happier lives. But notice this phenomenon. When people remember the crucial events that formed them, they don't usually talk about happiness. It is usually the ordeals that seem most significant. Most people shoot for happiness but feel formed through suffering.

People tend to want to live up to their friends' high regard.

In the educated class even social life is a series of aptitude tests; we all must perpetually perform in accordance with the shifting norms of propriety, ever advancing signals of cultivation.

New is America's oldest tradition.

Young Arab men are not going to walk away from extremism because they can suddenly afford a Slurpee. They will walk away when they can devote themselves to a some call to serve a cause that connects nationalism to dignity and democracy and transcends a lifetime.