“The Moral Bucket List” is primarily concerned with how to live a meaningful life through moral development. Brooks emphasizes that he is not an expert in this topic but a student beginning to learn. He imagines himself at the beginning of a path and studying the footsteps of those who have already walked it, writing, “I set out to discover how those deeply good people got that way. I didn’t know if I could follow their road to character […] But I at least wanted to know what the road looked like” (Paragraph 7).

Brooks presents the reader with observations and insights he gathered while delving into how to live a meaningful life. “The Moral Bucket List” does not offer prescriptions but suggestions in the form of images, oppositions, examples, and philosophical reflections.

Brooks is first alerted to the question of how to live the richest life by encounters with people who radiate inner light. They are selfless, “musical,” and full of “gratitude.” His recognition of something different and wonderful about the ways they interact with others and carry themselves inspires him to ask himself why he is not more like them. In the following paragraphs, he links their “depth of character” and “generosity of spirit” with “the deepest meaning of life” and the “highest moral joys” (Paragraph 6).