P. J. O'Rourke Quotes
In the American political system, you're only allowed to have real ideas if it's absolutely guaranteed that you can't win an election
Quotes to Explore
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A British porch is a musty, forbidding non-room in which to fling a sodden umbrella or a muddy pair of boots; a guard against the elements and strangers. By contrast the good ol' American front porch seems to stand for positivity and openness; a platform from which to welcome or wave farewell; a place where things of significance could happen.
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In American films, Russians are often portrayed like cartoon villains without clear motivations.
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President Obama has contempt for real money.
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Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
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Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today's Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator. And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators.
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I have new ideas every day, and I always want to take on new challenges.
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Islam is a violent, I was going to say religion, but it's not a religion. It's a political system. It's a violent political system bent on the overthrow of the governments of the world and world domination. That is the ultimate aim.
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There is resistance to change. There's a resistance to ideas.
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I just don't consider myself to be, you know, an American actor. I don't want that life.
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The pursuit of happiness, which American citizens are obliged to undertake, tends to involve them in trying to perpetuate the moods, tastes and aptitudes of youth.
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Over my career, I've reinvented myself numerous times. I covered the Pentagon, the State Department, and the CIA. I wrote about labor wars, trade wars and real wars. I chronicled a nuclear plant meltdown and the defeat of Communism. I co-founded a couple of media businesses.
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My skin may have wrinkles but it's because I'm smiling so much. That might sound like some terrible American greetings card, but I feel it's immoral for me to castigate my body for getting older, when it does everything I ask of it.
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There's some real dark days where you just feel like the story is falling apart in every one. Just keep moving forward, even when you are bluffing, even when you don't quite know what is going to happen next.
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The political environment we create matters because a disturbed person cannot always tell the difference between explosive rhetoric and explosive actions.
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Once you are satisfied with your goal, it is the real happiness.
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It's so inspiring to be around other people who have ideas you haven't thought of, and all of a sudden you're like, 'Wow! That's so amazing!' I definitely want everything I do to just get better and better.
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The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes.
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The real abhorrent consequence of the invention of atomic bombs is the fact that we still have them and they're spreading.
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Ultimately, it comes down to taste. It comes down to trying to expose yourself to the best things that humans have done and then try to bring those things into what you're doing. Picasso had a saying: good artists copy, great artists steal. And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas, and I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians and poets and artists and zoologists and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world.
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When a business becomes successful seemingly overnight, no one knows about all the months and years you've invested, all the projects you've tried before that didn't work.
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My grandmother can never really teach me anything because she skips steps.
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I'm what is known as perimenopausal. "Peri", some of you may know, is a Latin prefix meaning 'SHUT YOUR FLIPPIN' PIE HOLE'.
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I've always thought those guys are really funny. And I love Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin and Mary.
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In the American political system, you're only allowed to have real ideas if it's absolutely guaranteed that you can't win an election
