David Brooks Quotes

I think people make their own faces, as they grow.

There are those who receive as birthright an adequate or at least unquestioned sense of self and those who set out to reinvent themselves, for survival or for satisfaction, and travel far. Some people inherit values and practices as a house they inhabit; some of us have to burn down that house, find our own ground, build from scratch, even as a psychological metamorphosis.

I believe BMX has shaped me into who I am today, so if this journey never would have begun, then who knows the person I would be or what I would be doing with my life.

Your life starts to take shape at 30. You don't have to make excuses for who you are anymore.

No one is born fully-formed: it is through self-experience in the world that we become what we are.

The finest life is spent creating oneself, not procreating.

The sisters and brothers that you meet give you the materials which your character uses to build itself. It is said that some people are born great, others achieve it, some have it thrust upon them. In truth, the ways in which your character is built have to do with all three of those. Those around you, those you choose, and those who choose you.

The great object of Education should be commensurate with the object of life. It should be a moral one; to teach self-trust: to inspire the youthful man with an interest in himself; with a curiosity touching his own nature; to acquaint him with the resources of his mind, and to teach him that there is all his strength.

People become who they are. Even Beethoven became Beethoven.

I've learned that asking ourselves not just what we want to be, but who we want to be is important at every stage of our lives, not just when we're starting out in the world. That's because in a way, we're starting out fresh in the world every single day.

When I was growing up in Terrell, Texas, I felt that it was not where I was supposed to be. I knew that I was meant for a different destination. I think that the minute I was born, there was something inside telling me where I would go, it's like energy - an intangible destiny.

One thing I'm interested in is what shapes us: the people? The place where we live? It's both of those and more. That's what I keep coming back to.

To find one's calling is perhaps not the easiest thing in the world, but probably the most important.

The obsessions we have are pretty much the same our whole lives. Mine are people, the human condition, life.

I have reached a place in my life where I need to sit down and say, 'Well, what do I do? What's best for me?' I need to look into options for the future.

One isn't born one's self. One is born with a mass of expectations, a mass of other people's ideas - and you have to work through it all.

Some ideas, like what you're going to do with your life, take time to form.

There's nothing better than discovering, to your own astonishment, what you're meant to do. It's like falling in love.

It is not enough for me to ask question; I want to know how to answer the one question that seems to encompass everything I face: What am I here for?

People go to college to find who they are as a person and find what they want to do in life, and I kind of already know that so it would be like I'd be taking a step back or something.

Sometimes, taking a job is like going to a shrink or something, where you get to know yourself better.

It is important for you to know who you are and who you may become. It is more important than what you do, even as vital as your work is and will be.

I did find my direction at an early age.

I think sometimes we put too much of a gravity on what it is that we do... I just think you go out into the world, and if the door is open, pursue with excellence whatever it is that you feel you are called to pursue.

Eventually, I had to figure out what the hell I was going to do with my life. I needed to find my way back to Fleetwood Mac.