P. J. O'Rourke Quotes

America wasn't founded so that we could all be better. America was founded so we could all be anything we damned well pleased.

P. J. O'Rourke

• America
• Better
• Well

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Quotes to Explore

• America is the student who defies the odds to become the first in a family to go to college - the citizen who defies the cynics and goes out there and votes - the young person who comes out of the shadows to demand the right to dream. That's what America is about.

  

  Barack Obama
  • Family
  • America
  • Dream

• The most important thing Paris gave me was a perspective on Latin America. It taught me the differences between Latin America and Europe and among the Latin American countries themselves through the Latins I met there.

  

  Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  • Important
  • American
  • America

• If you are attempting to study American history, and you don't understand the force of white supremacy, you fundamentally misunderstand America.

  

  Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • American
  • America
  • History

• Sometimes the kids come up with better endings than the real story.

  

  Gail Carson Levine
  • Up
  • Real
  • Kids

• I always wanted to be a singer, and so, when I was 5 years old, I started acting classes so I could be a better performer. I wanted to have a powerful voice so I could be heard.

  

  Q'orianka Kilcher
  • Powerful
  • Better
  • Acting

• Jamaica has problems; America has problems; everywhere has problems.

  

  Ziggy Marley
  • America
  • Problems
  • Jamaica

• The Russo brothers are the best people ever, and they cast me in 'Happy Endings.' I did text Joe Russo to say, 'I don't think my character dies, so if you need a local news cameraman to show up in 'Captain America 2'... I know it doesn't make sense, but just hear me out on this!' He was really cool about it and turned me down right away.

  

  Adam Pally
  • People
  • Up
  • Character

• The great apologist has to have lived large and wild. If he's going to kiss the world's boo-boos and make up, he'd better plant some bruises first. A master apologizer has to be a Lord Byron, a Rick in Casablanca, a Lee Atwater, anyway.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • Up
  • World
  • Great

• As far as actors go, you're not going to find many ballplayers better than me.

  

  D. B. Sweeney
  • Better
  • Actors
  • Ballplayers

• Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.

  

  Pat Riley
  • Better
  • Excellence
  • Striving

• I have been talking to a lot of people who don't normally vote Democratic - independents and Republicans. They have been voting for Democrats because they think it's important to change the direction America is going.

  

  Ted Deutch
  • People
  • Important
  • America

• I think Steve Jobs is a historic figure. He's not only a historic figure in business, but really in America.

  

  Walt Mossberg
  • Business
  • America
  • Think

• Finally, in my critique of the immigration image of America, it is also important to know that we're not only a nation of immigrants, but we are in some part a nation of emigrants, which often gets neglected.

  

  Samuel P. Huntington
  • Important
  • America
  • Know

• I don't understand anything about America's culture.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • America
  • Culture
  • Understand

• We are Americans. We - we - we are - we are doctors. We are investment bankers. We are taxi drivers. We are store keepers. We are lawyers. We are - we are part of the fabric of America. And the way that America today treats its Muslims is being watched by over a billion Muslims worldwide.

  

  Feisal Abdul Rauf
  • America
  • Today
  • Lawyers

• We have the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. 'America, land of liberty and freedom?' You know, that's baloney. More than 2 million Americans are behind bars now. Communist China has four times the population and they have 1.5 million people behind bars.

  

  Gary Johnson
  • People
  • World
  • Country

• Historically, the mobile industry has been focused on the consumer, getting better performance and throughput to their devices.

  

  Hans Vestberg
  • Better
  • Performance
  • Mobile

• What I tend to get from America is very enthusiastic letters and e-mail from librarians and schoolteachers, the gatekeepers, though I hesitate to use that word. I've never been a huge seller.

  

  Kate Thompson
  • America
  • Never
  • Enthusiastic

• It's one of the great tragedies of our contemporary life in America, that families fall apart. Almost everybody has that in common.

  

  Sam Shepard
  • Life
  • Great
  • America

• Everyone gets a raise when they do well. No one asked me what I got for my initial films. There was a time I got paid Rs. 6 lakh. I charge what producers are willing to pay me.

  

  Rakul Preet Singh
  • Time
  • Pay
  • Well

• Kisses are a better fate than wisdom.

  

  e. e. cummings
  • Wisdom
  • Better
  • Fate

• America is neither free nor brave, but a land of tight, iron-clanking little wills, everybody trying to put it over everybody else, and a land of men absolutely devoid of the real courage of trust, trust in life's sacred spontaneity. They can't trust life until they can control it.

  

  D. H. Lawrence
  • Life
  • Men
  • Real

• I'm taking my time. I feel much more confident, and every day I feel like I'm getting better.

  

  Miguel Cabrera
  • Time
  • Better

• America wasn't founded so that we could all be better. America was founded so we could all be anything we damned well pleased.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • America
  • Better
  • Well