As a political independent, I would gladly vote for any political party dedicated to limited government and entrepreneurship. Arthur C.Brooks
The truth is that relative income is not directly related to happiness. Nonpartisan social-survey data clearly show that the big driver of happiness is earned success: a person's belief that he has created value in his life or the life of others. Arthur C.Brooks
The more control you have over your life, the more responsible you feel for your own success - or failure. Arthur C.Brooks
Yes, free markets tend to produce unequal incomes. We should not be ashamed of that. On the contrary, our system is the envy of the world and should be a source of pride. Arthur C.Brooks
The system that enables the most people to earn the most success is free enterprise, by matching up people's skills, interests, and abilities. In contrast, redistribution simply spreads money around. Even worse, it attenuates the ability to earn success by perverting economic incentives. Arthur C.Brooks
Whether we look at capitalism, taxes, business, or government, the data show a clear and consistent pattern: 70 percent of Americans support the free enterprise system and are unsupportive of big government. Arthur C.Brooks
FDR created today's 30 percent coalition. Obama wants to finish the job by turning it into a permanent ruling majority. There's nothing new about the Obama Narrative. It is the FDR Narrative on steroids. It is intended to lead to greater statism and political gain. Arthur C.Brooks
We will have bigger bureaucracies, bigger labor unions, and bigger state-run corporations. It will be harder to be an entrepreneur because of punitive taxes and regulations. The rewards of success will be expropriated for the sake of attaining greater income equality. Arthur C.Brooks
There is nothing inherently fair about equalizing incomes. If the government penalizes you for working harder than somebody else, that is unfair. If you save your money but retire with the same pension as a free-spending neighbor, that is also unfair. Arthur C.Brooks
It's hard enough to tell good stories about people who analyze information for a living. It's even harder to do a good show about people who think for a living.Henry Bromell
I went to school with a guy named Truxton. He and I played football together, and he knocked me out once because he's bigger and strong than I am. Henry Bromell
True stories, autobiographical stories, like some novels, begin long ago, before the acts in the account, before the birth of some of the people in the tale. Harold Brodkey
It bothers me that I won't live to see the end of the century, because, when I was young, in St. Louis, I remember saying to Marilyn, my sister by adoption, that that was how long I wanted to live: seventy years. Harold Brodkey
I can't change the past, and I don't think I would. I don't expect to be understood. I like what I've written, the stories and two novels. If I had to give up what I've written in order to be clear of this disease, I wouldn't do it. Harold Brodkey
Memory, so complete and clear or so evasive, has to be ended, has to be put aside, as if one were leaving a chapel and bringing the prayer to an end in one's head. Harold Brodkey
God is an immensity, while this disease, this death, which is in me, this small, tightly defined pedestrian event, is merely and perfectly real, without miracle - or instruction. Harold Brodkey
I feel sorry for the man who marries you... because everyone thinks you're sweet and you're not. Harold Brodkey
I look upon another's insistence on the merits of his or her life - duties, intellect, accomplishment - and see that most of it is nonsense. Harold Brodkey