"Nearly every parent on earth operates on the assumption that character matters a lot to the life outcomes of their children. Nearly every government antipoverty program operates on the assumption that..."
- David Brooks
"Abilene had gone from boomtown to Bible Belt, from whorehouses to schoolmarms, without any of the intervening phases."
"Her characters tend to err when they reject the grubby and complex circumstances of everyday life for abstract and radical notions. They thrive when they work within the rooted spot, the concrete habi..."
"They possess the self- effacing virtues of people who are inclined to be useful but don’t need to prove anything to the world:"
"People who are humble about their own nature are moral realists. Moral realists are aware that we are all built from “crooked timber”— from Immanuel Kant’s famous line, “Out of the crooked timber of h..."
"[T]he road to character is built by confronting your own weakness."
"It was easier to come to maturity when there were more well-defined philosophical options."
"Just as he was slowly bringing order to his own internal life, he would also bring order to his language."
"if you think you can organize your own salvation you are magnifying the very sin that keeps you from it."
"In the evenings she got on her knees and inflicted her piety on her sister:"