P. J. O'Rourke Quotes

In general, life is better than it has ever been, and if you think that, in the past, there was some golden age of pleasure and plenty to which you would, if you were able, transport yourself, let me say one single word : Dentistry.

P. J. O'Rourke

• Life
• Thinking
• History
• Age
• Past
• Single

• Previous
• Next

Quotes to Explore

• You will die but the carbon will not; its career does not end with you. It will return to the soil, and there a plant may take it up again in time, sending it once more on a cycle of plant and animal life.

  

  Jacob Bronowski
  • Life
  • Up
  • Time

• Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to make films. That's really all I ever wanted to do.

  

  Gavin O'Connor
  • Really
  • Kid
  • Ever

• The more I talk about things, the more I understand myself.

  

  Gavin Rossdale Bush
  • Myself
  • Understand
  • Talk

• Free imagination is the inestimable prerogative of youth and it must be cherished and guarded as a treasure.

  

  Felix Bloch
  • Free
  • Imagination
  • Youth

• Going out and looking for managers is like going out and looking for rattlesnakes.

  

  Walter Becker Steely Dan
  • Like
  • Looking
  • Going

• Detroit's industrial ruins are picturesque, like crumbling Rome in an 18th-century etching.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • Like
  • Rome
  • Industrial

• I'm definitely not a super great guitarist. Ultimately, I just write a lot of love songs.

  

  Vance Joy
  • Great
  • Write
  • Songs

• No art is less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and the study of the great masters.

  

  Edgar Degas
  • Great
  • Art
  • Study

• Elves have this superhuman strength, yet they're so graceful. Tolkien created them to be angelic spirits, but I also saw Legolas as something out of the Seven Samurai.

  

  Orlando Bloom
  • Strength
  • Graceful
  • Elves

• Ain't no place like New Orleans. It's one of kind.

  

  Aaron Neville
  • Kind
  • Place
  • New

• I have the rare privilege of talking to my dad every night at 10 p.m. and hearing about what he did that day.

  

  Vanessa Kerry
  • Night
  • Dad
  • Day

• Lend your ears to music, open your eyes to painting, and... stop thinking! Just ask yourself whether the work has enabled you to 'walk about' into a hitherto unknown world. If the answer is yes, what more do you want?

  

  Wassily Kandinsky
  • World
  • Work
  • Music

• I have many debates now with friends on the changes, and the continuing confusion over bringing up your children, instilling values, letting them make the right choices.

  

  Olivia Williams
  • Up
  • Children
  • Friends

• The notion of religious liberty is that you cannot be forced to participate in a religious ceremony that's not of your choosing simply because you're out-voted.

  

  Ira Glasser
  • You
  • Religious
  • Liberty

• I am upset and completely disappointed in the government, the millionaires and billionaires in the U.S. See what's happening to the country? Look at all the health problems, the economy, the recession and crime.

  

  Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
  • Health
  • Government
  • Economy

• I don't eat any red meat.

  

  Taylor Momsen
  • Red
  • Eat
  • Meat

• I didn't know 'Homeland' was going to be 'Homeland.' I just did it because it was a terrific script, and they pitched me the story line, and I was like, 'Huh, that's interesting.'

  

  Damian Lewis
  • Interesting
  • Story
  • Script

• What I love about 'Midnight Train' is that it's a song about a journey, but the music actually takes you on that journey. It feels like you're moving through the whole song.

  

  Garth Brooks
  • Music
  • Love
  • Song

• English has always had a special fondness for other European languages, a neighborly soft spot - perhaps because Britain has been invaded by speakers of those languages from the onset of its recorded history.

  

  Rabih Alameddine
  • History
  • Always
  • English

• Life is fragile, yet to obstinately struggle is natural.

  

  Gao Xingjian
  • Life
  • Struggle

• I have to say that I think that Anthony Eden was probably the most disastrous Prime Minister in our history, and I am not forgetting Lord North and a few people like that.

  

  Malcolm Muggeridge
  • People
  • History
  • Prime Minister

• If I get blocked, it is generally because I don't know enough about some aspect of the story or the characters. The answer for this is generally more research, or making more background notes, so the place and person can be more fully realized inside my own mind.

  

  Sarah Zettel
  • Mind
  • Character
  • Enough

• In general, life is better than it has ever been, and if you think that, in the past, there was some golden age of pleasure and plenty to which you would, if you were able, transport yourself, let me say one single word : Dentistry.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • Life
  • Thinking
  • History