If you go in a confirmation process, you're going to be asked about the embarrassing or stupid things you said. You should have a view. David Brooks More Quotes by David Brooks More Quotes From David Brooks 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. David Brooks rise-of-china simple would-be People want a reality that tells them they're right all of the time. David Brooks want reality people Betsy DeVos is not the most informed person on education policy, but I have seen her present a few times, and she presents as a pretty respectable, intelligent person who has cared passionately about education and cares about charter schools. David Brooks care intelligent school A wise soul once declared that the ultimate power of the writer is that he has the choice of whom he wants to be co-opted by. David Brooks choices wise writing I've come to think that flourishing consists of putting yourself in situations in which you lose self-consciousness and become fused with other people, experiences, or tasks. David Brooks self people thinking People used to complain that selling a president was like selling a bar of soap. But when you buy soap, at least you get the soap. In this campaign, you just get two guys telling you they really value cleanliness. David Brooks guy two people Jeff Sessions has some problematic spots on his history, but he has been a pretty normal, respectable senator, more conservative than a lot of us, but a respectable senator for a long period of time. David Brooks conservative normal long 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. David Brooks race self people The daily activity that contributes most to happiness is having dinner with friends. The daily activity that detracts most from happiness is commuting. Eat more. Commute less. David Brooks daily-activities graduation inspirational People generally overestimate how distinct their lives are, so the commonalities seemed to them like a series of miracles. David Brooks series miracle people I do not believe that anything like what Donald Trump just proposed is going to get through Congress. Those deductions have a lot of defenders. The idea that they're going to completely explode the deficit is just a party killer for the Republican parties. David Brooks republican party believe 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. David Brooks expression self school Learning was a by-product of her search for pleasure David Brooks pleasure products We are primarily the products of thinking that happens below the level of awareness. David Brooks levels awareness thinking There has never been evidence that people from these [banned] countries are disproportionately likely to commit terrorist acts. We have sent chaos to the airports. We have offended the world. We have derailed the administration. We have done it in such an incompetent way, the administration has, that people with perfectly legal residence have been widely inconvenienced. David Brooks airports country people The school asks a person who has achieved a certain level of career success to give you a speech telling you that career success is not important. David Brooks graduation inspirational school People have been raised in a morality that says, "If it feels all right for you, it's probably OK." David Brooks ifs feels Liberals lost touch with working-class Americans because they never had to have a conversation about values with those voters; they could just rely on the courts to impose their views. David Brooks voters views class I think we are all disgusted by the way George W. Bush's administration has allowed honesty and candor to seep into the genteel world of international affairs. David Brooks honesty world thinking The core threat to democracy is not in the White House, it's the [Bush] haters themselves. David Brooks democracy white house