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Arthur C. Brooks QUOTES

Arthur C. Brooks QUOTES

1 " Liberals are more likely to see people as victims of circumstance and oppression, and doubt whether individuals can climb without governmental help. My own analysis using 2005 survey data from Syracuse University shows that about 90 percent of conservatives agree that “While people may begin with different opportunities, hard work and perseverance can usually overcome those disadvantages.” Liberals — even upper-income liberals — are a third less likely to say this. "

― Arthur C. Brooks

2 " pessimists see people as liabilities to manage, as burdens or threats that we must minimize. "

― Arthur C. Brooks

3 " We don’t have an anger problem in American politics. We have a contempt problem. . . . If you listen to how people talk to each other in political life today, you notice it is with pure contempt. When somebody around you treats you with contempt, you never quite forget it. So if we want to solve the problem of polarization today, we have to solve the contempt problem. "

― Arthur C. Brooks , Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt

4 " Anyone who can’t tell the difference between an ordinary Bernie Sanders supporter and a Stalinist revolutionary, or between Donald Trump’s average voter and a Nazi, is either willfully ignorant or needs to get out of the house more. Today, our public discourse is shockingly hyperbolic in ascribing historically murderous ideologies to the tens of millions of ordinary Americans with whom we strongly disagree. Just because you disagree with something doesn’t mean it’s hate speech or the person saying it is a deviant. "

― Arthur C. Brooks , Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt

5 " The more control you have over your life, the more responsible you feel for your own success - or failure. "

― Arthur C. Brooks

6 " No one sighs regretfully on his deathbed and says, “I can’t believe I wasted all that time with my wife and kids,” “volunteering at the soup kitchen,” or “growing in my spirituality.” No one ever says, “I should have spent more time watching TV and playing Angry Birds on my phone.” In my own life, nothing has given my life more meaning and satisfaction than my Catholic faith and the love of my "

― Arthur C. Brooks , The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America

7 " Conservatives have the most effective solutions for human flourishing in our intellectual DNA. Our ideas have lifted up people all over the world. But the American people do not trust us to put those principles into practice to help those who need help right here. "

― Arthur C. Brooks , The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America

8 " There is a lot to be mad about in America today, but we must never forget that our cause is a joyous one. Conservatives should be optimists who believe in people. We champion hope and opportunity. Fighting for people, helping those who need us, and saving the country—this is, and should be, happy work. "

― Arthur C. Brooks , The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America

9 " When I call for a standard of love, I am asking us all to listen to our hearts, of course. But also to think clearly, look at the facts, and do difficult things when necessary, so that we can truly lift people up and bring them together. "

― Arthur C. Brooks , Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt

10 " What the United States needs is for a unifying, positive, aspirational force to sweep through our national community. American conservatives have a generational opportunity to become precisely this kind of force. We have a shot, if we take it, to help every single American build a better life, and unite our nation in the process. "

― Arthur C. Brooks , The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America

11 " First, we should concentrate each day on the happiness portfolio: faith, family, community, and earned success through work. Teach it to those around you, and fight against the barriers to these things. Second, resist the worldly formula of misery, which is to use people and love things. Instead, remember your core values and live by the true formula: Love people and use things. Third, celebrate the free enterprise system, which creates abundance for the most people—especially the poor. But always remember that the love of money is the root of all evil, and that the ideal life requires abundance without attachment. "

― Arthur C. Brooks , The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America

12 " The ideals of free enterprise and global leadership, central to American conservatism, are responsible for the greatest reduction in human misery since mankind began its long climb from the swamp to the stars. "

― Arthur C. Brooks , The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America

13 " Meaningful progress toward social justice cannot be made in sclerotic education systems that put adults’ job security before children’s civil rights. "

― Arthur C. Brooks , The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America

14 " Franklin Roosevelt had warned in his 1935 State of the Union address that “continued dependence” on government support “induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. "

― Arthur C. Brooks , Poverty in America and What to Do About It

15 " He possessed an unflinching belief that all people — the poor, children, the elderly — were human assets, waiting to be developed so they could earn their success. "

― Arthur C. Brooks

16 " Get old sharing the things you believe are most important. Excellence is always its own reward, and this is how you can be most excellent as you age. "

― Arthur C. Brooks , From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life

17 " But at the same time, a bloated welfare state that nudges middle-class citizens away from the labor force is moving our society away from the dignity of earned success. "

― Arthur C. Brooks , The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America

18 " But never once did he say that Jimmy Carter hated America, was a crook, or wanted to see the American dream die. He knew Jimmy Carter was a good man who loved his country—he just had, in Reagan’s opinion, the wrong ideas for how to make America great again. "

― Arthur C. Brooks , Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt

19 " The bad news is that in your fifties, you are still pretty wet behind the ears. But here’s the good news: at age seventy-two, you still have half your work to go! Better take care of your health so you can write your best books into your eighties. "

― Arthur C. Brooks , From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life

20 " Almost no one is ever insulted into agreement. "

― Arthur C. Brooks , Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt