David Brooks Quotes

You have to have something in your life that's more important than the work. People don't really like to admit that. They say, 'Oh, my work is my most important thing.'

Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work. The second is only part of the first.

You have to have something in your life that's more important than the work. People don't really like to admit that. I think that you have to find something else. I don't know what it is. Is it yoga or God or politics? For me it's just family.

My career is really important to me, but there have to be other great, important things in your life besides work.

I used to be a classic workaholic, and after seeing how little work and career really mean when you reach the end of your life, I put a new emphasis on things I believe count more. These things include: family, friends, being part of a community, and appreciating the little joys of the average day.

I think all those people I did stories about measured their own success by the joy their work was giving them.

Always leave enough time in your life to do something that makes you happy, satisfied, even joyous. That has more of an effect on economic well-being than any other single factor.

I'm more interested in my life than I am in my career. I don't want to not work. I do enjoy working, but not to the point where that's the only thing I focus on.

A career is all very well, but no one lives by work alone.

I have to work, for my soul.

I've always made a clear distinction between making a life and making a living.

Don't let making a living prevent you from making a life.

Time scares me: having enough time to do all the things that I want to do in life, just even in terms of forgetting about the business I'm in.

I don't live out my career, I live my life.

That's the principle I teach - find your passion in life and figure out a way to make money.

My work gave me everything and allowed me to live out my passion.

I've built my career around my life instead of being consumed by the fame monster.

In our world, we have this huge focus on vicarious living - politicians, movie stars, athletes, coaches, all these people. What our research has shown very clearly is that people who are really happier and have more meaningful lives are people that focus on living their own lives.

My career is important but it's not the be-all and end-all of my life.

I don't want my life to be about a house and a car.

I've got a very full life beyond my career.

I had fame and wealth and things that are supposed to make you happy, but I wasn't happy, because there's no importance on having a fulfilling life. So in my mid-40s, that was my pursuit - making films that interested me, films that I would like to go see.

I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we all are seeking something better in life. So, I think, the very motion of our life is towards happiness.

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one.

You make the mistake of thinking you have to choose, that you have to do what you want, that there are conditions for happiness. What matters — all that matters, really is the will to happiness, a kind of enormous, ever present consciousness. The rest - women , art, success — is nothing but excuses. A canvas waiting for our embroideries.