David Brooks Quotes

I'm a big believer in free enterprise. If people want to try it, then go for it.

During dark times, real entrepreneurs come out. They are not competing with 10 look-alike companies for engineering talent, so it's a great time to invest and help build companies.

Of all human powers operating on the affairs of mankind, none is greater than that of competition.

However much we might deplore the profit motive, or consumerist values, if everyone just wants i-Pods we would probably be better off than if they wanted class revolution.

If we didn't have greed, market economies wouldn't be as innovative as they are. But in my view, greed has to be contained by the fear of losses, so there has to be a system where, if you take too much risk, you go into bankruptcy. You don't systematically bail out people who take excessive risks.

The market economy is very good at wealth creation but not perfect at all about wealth distribution.

Right now people seem to be very tentative about the positive benefits of capitalism.

Capitalism has forced everyone to overoptimize in order to compete.

Koch Industries is an amazing business that has succeeded by building a product that customers love dearly. The folks who run Koch are very clear. They would love to have government just get out of the way and allow companies to compete, whether in their particular sectors or other sectors. They are true believers in small government.

America traditionally represents the greatest possibility of someone's going from nothing to something. Why? In theory, if not practice, the government stays out of the way and lets individuals take risks and reap rewards or accept the consequences of failure. We call this capitalism - or, at least, we used to.

I get a bit of a kick out of exporting private enterprise and incentives.

In a period of economic downturn, the overwhelming instinct is to pare back, cut costs, and lay off. If you do that, do so with your strategy in mind. The worst mistake is to cut across the board. Instead, reconnect and recommit to a clear strategy that will distinguish yourself from others.

Overcoming the myth that there is such a thing as an objectively defined 'free market' is the first step towards understanding capitalism.

I unabashedly, unashamedly, unequivocally support the explosion of entrepreneurs in the capitalist system.

An economy open to new concepts and novel ventures is bound to generate unequal gains.

A Socialist Government cannot carry on a capitalist system better than the capitalists. The men bred by a capitalist system are men of affairs who understand their business. They are not apprentices.

Controlling capitalism has proved far more difficult than controlling anything else, because capitalism is based on the control of the many by the few—the reverse of the conventional definition of political democracy.

Americans chose a free enterprise system designed to provide a quality of opportunity, not compel a quality of results. And that is why this is only place in the world where you can open up a business in the spare bedroom of your home.

Capitalism cannot reform itself; it is doomed to self-destruction.

Innovation means taking risks, and that is where the private sector can play a role.

Capitalism is the engine that has grown economies.

In spite of the anticapitalistic policies of all governments and of almost all political parties, the capitalist mode of production

Advertising, the product of capitalism, can only justify itself on the premise that the market is a force for good.

Many of humanity's most intractable challenges will only be solved through market-driven innovation.

I don't think capitalism can survive.