P. J. O'Rourke Quotes
Adam Smith pointed out that there were three things that make us more prosperous, in a general sort of way: freedom to pursue our own self-interest; specialization, which he called division of labor; and freedom of trade.
Quotes to Explore
-
Knowledge is invariably a matter of degree: you cannot put your finger upon even the simplest datum and say this we know.
-
Inside every adult male is a denied little boy.
-
At times, it seems as if the only women effortlessly balancing their jobs, kids, husbands and homes are the ones on TV.
-
I'm for absolute autonomy of the individual, and an adult, competent woman has absolute autonomy. It's her choice.
-
In writing a little tragedy, 'The Gaol Gate,' I made the scenario in three lines, 'He is an informer; he is dead; he is hanged.' I wrote that play very quickly.
-
Winning a gold medal is not easy but I believed in myself, especially over the last four years.
-
I'm kind of a sucker for the retro-diagnoses.
-
In most organizations, change comes in only two flavors: trivial and traumatic. Review the history of the average organization and you'll discover long periods of incremental fiddling punctuated by occasional bouts of frantic, crisis-driven change.
-
I was very rebellious.
-
I have a terrible fear of travel. Just before we go, I start to panic and tell my wife I don't want to go. It's ridiculous. But actually it's only when it's somewhere I've not been to before.
-
I think everybody can identify, you know, with this sort of struggle to decide for yourself who you are, you know, and what your place in life is.
-
War triggers unforeseeable military dynamics and sets off massive political shocks, creating new problems as well as new opportunities.
-
If the people don't want to come out to the ballpark, nobody's going to stop them.
-
Sometimes I sit down to dinner with people and I realize there is a massive military machine surrounding us, trying to kill the people I'm having dinner with.
-
Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.
-
Future historians trying to determine what it was like to be alive in fin de millennium America should read the last two decades of O. Henry and Best American short-story collections.
-
Beauty is our weapon against nature; by it we make objects, giving them limit, symmetry, proportion. Beauty halts and freezes the melting flux of nature.
-
Whence it is somewhat strange that any men from so mean and silly a practice should expect commendation, or that any should afford regard thereto; the which it is so far from meriting, that indeed contempt and abhorrence are due to it.
-
Abstract art: a construction site for high fashion, for advertising, for furniture.
-
What it comes down to for me is this: Will the technologies of communication in our culture, serve to enlighten us and help us to understand one another better, or will they deceive us and keep us apart?
-
We've all done actions in our lives where we compromise what we believe in. And if we keep doing it, there's no way back, no pride to hold on to.
-
I do focus my energy on music, but it's just the way that the industry works. I kind of have to take what I can get when it comes to acting and show up so they'll hire me. And music I get to do when I have time. It's not that I focus less, it's just the way it works.
-
I've never been adamant about joining Twitter; I have nothing against it; I'm not one of those people who hates Twitter. I think it's great for what it is, but right now - I don't know. I just like to keep the mystery.
-
Adam Smith pointed out that there were three things that make us more prosperous, in a general sort of way: freedom to pursue our own self-interest; specialization, which he called division of labor; and freedom of trade.
