I like fiction and the kind of history that gives the grace and flavor of fiction to the past. No bloviation on current events, please. I can write that junk myself.
P. J. O'ROURKEWe need a government, alas, because of the nature of humans.
More P. J. O'Rourke Quotes
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If government were a product, selling it would be illegal.
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Rich people don’t like to be in the military. The shoes are ugly and the uniforms itch. Rich people don’t go in much for revolution or terrorism, either.
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In our brief national history we have shot four of our presidents, worried five of them to death, impeached one and hounded another out of office. And when all else fails, we hold an election and assassinate their character.
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Call a man ‘ignorant,’ and you have license to show the world your vast fund of knowledge and wise him up.
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Wealth brings great benefits to the world. Rich people are heros.
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By the end of the 1950s, American cars were so reliable that their reliability went without saying even in car ads. Thousands of them bear testimony to this today, still running on the roads of Cuba though fueled with nationalized Venezuelan gasoline and maintained with spit and haywire.
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All change is bad. But sometimes it has to be done.
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Political leaders are expert at saying nothing.
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Even very young children need to be informed about dying. Explain the concept of death very carefully to your child. This will make threatening him with it much more effective.
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When I’m in the car, I want the only one shouting to be me.
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When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.
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Staying married may have long-term benefits. You can elicit much more sympathy from friends over a bad marriage than you ever can from a good divorce.
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The whole idea of our government is this: If enough people get together and act in concert, they can take something and not pay for it.
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The perpetuation of slavery, the exile and extermination of American Indians, and the passage of Jim Crow laws weren’t carried out at the bidding of a few malefactors of great wealth.
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The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year’s Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you’re married to.
P. J. O'ROURKE