"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. It happens sometimes when..."
- David Brooks
"Across the centuries the moral systems from medival chivalry to Bruce Springsteen love anthems have worked the same basic way. They take immediate selfish interests and enmesh them within transcendent..."
"Learning was a by-product of her search for pleasure"
"In times of crisis, you get a public reaction that is incoherence on stilts. On the one hand, most people know that the government is not in the oil business. They don't want it in the oil business. T..."
"Moderation is based on the idea that things do not fit neatly together. Politics is likely to be a competition between legitimate opposing interests. Philosophy is likely to be a tension between compe..."
"The imagination simplifies our endless desires and causes us to fantasize that they can be fulfilled."
"They finally achieve a sort of outward-facing union."
"Almost every successful person begins with two beliefs: the future can be better than the present, and I have the power to make it so."
"Her genius derives from the fact that she was capable of the deepest feeling but also of the most discerning and disciplined thought."
"Women, in general, are less visually aroused than men, a trait that has nearly cut the market for pornography in half."