Fortune Quote #3075

Violence is interesting. This is a great obstacle to world peace and also
to more thoughtful television programming. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3074

I guess the argument of contextuality is that anything is okay as long as
it's done by people who are sufficiently unlike you. -- P.J.
O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3073

Idealism is based on big ideas. And, as anybody who has ever been
asked "What's the big idea?" knows, most big ideas are bad ones. --
P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3072

In a society where commonweal does not exist, there are no duties, only
exactations to be avoided, and no freedoms, only privileges to be grabbed.
There can be no such thing as "public services" because nothing in the
country is truly public. Everything is somebody's fief. And every fief must
be exploited if the exploiter cares to survive. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3071

Government subsidies can be critically analyzed according to a simple
principle: You are smarter than the government, so when the government pays
you to do something you wouldn't do on your own, it is almost always paying
you to do something stupid. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3070

Schneider has made a career of telling the public that the climate is
going to change drastically any time now, and indeed every spring and fall
he's been right. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3069

People with a mission to save the earth want the earth to seem worse than
it is so their mission will look more important. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3068

When a private entity does not produce the desired results, it is (certain
body parts excepted) done away with. But a public entity gets
bigger. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3067

One of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual
responsibility is the difficulty of finding somebody to blame your problems
on. And when you do find somebody, it's remarkable how often his picture
turns up on your driver's license. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3066

You can't get rid of poverty by giving people money. -- P.J.
O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3065

You know your children are growing up when they stop asking you where they
came from and refuse to tell you where they're going. -- P.J.
O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3064

Moscow has changed. I was here in 1982, during the Brezhnev twilight, and
things are better now. For instance, they've got litter. In 1982 there
was nothing to litter with. -- P.J. O'Rourke (1989)

Fortune Quote #3063

The interesting thing about staring down a gun barrel is how small the
hole is where the bullet comes out, yet what a big difference it would make
in your social schedule. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3062

Everything on a boat has a different name than it would have if it weren't
on a boat. Either this is ancient seafaring tradition or it's how people
who mess around with boats try to impress the rest of us who actually
finished college. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3061

To grasp the true meaning of socialism, imagine a world where everything
is designed by the post office, even the sleaze. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3060

Neither conservatives nor humorists believe man is good. But left-wingers
do. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3059

A child growing up in an excessively safe environment may never learn that
he is one - not until he gets married and has a wife to tell him
so. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3058

These were people who believed everything about the Soviet Union was
perfect, but they were bringing their own toilet paper. -- P.J.
O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3057

I'm a registered Republican and consider socialism a violation of the
American principle that you shouldn't stick your nose in other people's
business except to make a buck. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3056

Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a
democracy, the whores are us. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3055

Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is a virtue. Fleas are
interested in dogs. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3054

Never fight an inanimate object. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3053

Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society.
If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people
for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of
power. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3052

The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter,
taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are
the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and
prove it. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3051

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys
to teenage boys. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3050

Feeling good about government is like looking on the bright side of any
catastrophe. When you quit looking on the bright side, the catastrophe is
still there. -- P.J. O'Rourke, "Parliament of Whores"

Fortune Quote #3049

When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to
be bought and sold are legislators. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3048

A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a
fool trusts either of them. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3047

Getting facts right is a fundamental requirement of morality. --
P.J. O'Rourke

Fortune Quote #3046

They who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its stream
no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and the Constitution, and
drink at it there with reverence and humility; but they who behold where it
comes trickling into this lake or that pool, gird up their loins once more
and continue their pilgrimage toward its fountain-head. -- Henry
David Thoreau

Fortune Quote #3045

As they could not reach me, they had resolved to punish my body, just as
boys, if they cannot come at some person against whom they have a spite,
will abuse his dog. -- Henry David Thoreau