In my view, success is earned externally by being better than other people. But character, that sort of unfakeable goodness, is earned by being better than you used to be. And it's about self-confrontation. David Brooks More Quotes by David Brooks More Quotes From David Brooks If I had to fault President [Barack] Obama, I would say that sometimes governs like a visitor from a morally superior civilization. David Brooks visitors president civilization We live in a culture of a big me. We're encouraged - we raise our kids to think how great they are, where we have to market ourselves to get through life. We're in social media, where we broadcast highlight - highlight reels of our own lives on Facebook. David Brooks media kids thinking 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. David Brooks two people thinking People who give money in large amount in politics are basically not altruistic. They have some issue. They have some interest. It may be world peace. It may be preserving carried interest. But it's not altruistic. David Brooks issues giving people People who give money in large amount in politics are basically not altruistic. David Brooks amount giving people President Obama was the first president not to abide by the limits in the general election. David Brooks limits president firsts We are all fundamentally equal souls, and if you make a zillion dollars, you're not any better than anybody else spiritually. You're still an equal soul. David Brooks equal dollars soul I wasn't born with a tie or with Mark Shields stapled to my left hip. I have another life. David Brooks shields hips ties I'm thankful that we live in a crassly commercial, polarized culture, so media jackals like me have a lot of work to do. David Brooks jackals media culture