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 More Quotes by David Brooks More Quotes From David Brooks I think the Democrats are right to protest, but I don't think Jeff Sessions is so far out of the range of normalcy that he shouldn't be confirmed. David Brooks normalcy range thinking I don't blame the Democrats for fighting. They have got a very energized base. And there is a lot to complain about a lot of these nominees. But I think, if you are actually going to turn someone down from a president's [Donald Trump] own Cabinet, it better be a lot more egregious than the cases we have seen. David Brooks fighting president thinking Donald Trump's world view is that it's a dangerous, miserable place, people are out to get him, and he needs to strike them first. David Brooks views people firsts On the [Betsy] DeVos case, I agree that the gun - her gun position is kind of weird, kind of crazy, but I do think she does know about public schools. David Brooks crazy gun school The reason the Betsy DeVos case was the centerpiece case for the Democrats wasn't about her weakness as a knowledgeable person on education policy. David Brooks knowledgeable-person weakness reason [Betsy DeVos] does care about charter schools, which are public schools. She does care about choice, which is a perfectly legitimate thing to care about. It's because it's the one issue where the Democratic donor base was really energized, which was the teacher unions. David Brooks issues teacher school Would [Betsy DeVos] be my first pick? No. Is she someone who has dedicated her life to education policy? Yes, actually, she has. David Brooks dedicated policy firsts I think as we interpret him and frankly as the world learns to interpret Donald Trump, are these just words that are enigmatic things floating on air or are they actually shifts in policy and will they change moment by moment, day by day without any underlying connection to the actual stuff of governance? I don't know. David Brooks connections air thinking Even in this nuclear thing, [ Donald Trump] says we should be stronger and expand. What does that mean? So, what is concrete in what he's saying? David Brooks stronger doe mean With a normal president like President [Barack] Obama, he says a word, and that's because there has been some thought that he's done and there had been policy papers and there's been aides and there's been advisers and then there is a connection to an actual set of policies. And so, the words like have roots into actual stuff. David Brooks normal president roots Donald Trump's ego is like a comet the size of Jupiter just traveling through the solar system, and we all have to be affected by its gravitational pull. David Brooks jupiter size ego Woe to you who insults the intelligence community, if you're president. David Brooks woe community president When a president speaks that usually means a lot. David Brooks speak president mean I have come to think we have to treat Donald Trump's tweets like Snapchat. It's just something that is going to go away. And it flies out of some region of his brain and it goes out into the ether. And usually it's on the realm of media. David Brooks media brain thinking The policies of the Democratic Party have always been in cultural consonance with the culture of the working class. And, somehow, they missed that. David Brooks party class culture When you're in governance, you understand the limitations and the complexities of governance. David Brooks governance limitation complexity You have to have a plan, or else you're just creating a recipe for chaos. David Brooks chaos creating recipes Donald Trump just needs the ego fed all the time. David Brooks trump ego needs The Republicans in Congress, they believe in Ronald Reagan's Republican Party, not Donald Trump Republican Party or Steve Bannon's Republican Party. David Brooks republican party believe Donald Trump is this whirling dervish of chaos. He picked a fight with Mexico. Germany is not far behind. He will pick a fight with them. He will pick a fight with China, which would be truly cataclysmic. David Brooks germany fighting would-be
