P. J. O'Rourke Quotes

Politics is the business of getting power and privilege without possessing merit. A politician is anyone who asks individuals to surrender part of their liberty- their power and privilege- to State, Masses, Mankind, Planet Earth, or whatever. This state, those masses, that mankind, and the planet will then be run by ... politicians.

P. J. O'Rourke

• Business
• Power
• Earth

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Quotes to Explore

• I joined a radical group at the age of 16 because I'm a passionate man; the good news is that I turned myself around since then. But my character is still quite free and passionate.

  

  Maajid Nawaz
  • Good
  • Character
  • Age

• I have not been a good father, but no father has loved his children more. Like my father, I decided the best thing I could do for my kids was work and provide. Fortunately, I've been able to do that. Unfortunately, my work was on the road, and that's meant a life of one-nighters.

  

  B. B. King
  • Life
  • Good
  • Work

• This is something I've wanted to do my whole life is play baseball, and I think just the opportunity to put on a big-league uniform every day is just... you know, people dream of it, but not everybody gets to do it. I'm thankful every day I get to do it.

  

  Jacob deGrom
  • People
  • Life
  • Dream

• There's nothing wrong with constructive criticism, and I learn from that and better myself. I'm not expecting anyone to be sycophantic in any way; I never expected that.

  

  Victoria Beckham Spice Girls
  • Myself
  • Learn
  • Criticism

• Nothing is so aggravating than calmness.

  

  Oscar Wilde
  • Nothing
  • Calmness
  • Aggravating

• I just respect Kanye as an artist.

  

  Bebe Rexha
  • Respect
  • Artist
  • Just

• No one escapes from the past without bearing some of its burdens.

  

  Edmund Morgan
  • Past
  • Without
  • Some

• A woman who places a high priority on performance and excellence is seen as imperial. A man is seen as demanding and tough.

  

  Faye Wattleton
  • High
  • Man
  • Woman

• I would love the opportunity to create my own program. I feel like a TV show with a format of monologue with lots of sketches thrown in could be really fun. But you know, that may never happen. Minimally, I just want to keep making stand-up.

  

  Hari Kondabolu
  • Up
  • Love
  • May

• It's abhorrent to me that somebody is just evil, and you can't explain it.

  

  Forest Whitaker
  • Evil
  • Explain
  • Abhorrent

• Men enter local politics solely as a result of being unhappily married.

  

  C. Northcote Parkinson
  • Men
  • Politics
  • Married

• A lot of people love the idea of improvising but are terrified of it, so I tried to make a book that was not a chef's book about improvising but a real home cook's book with a real home cook's pantry, supermarket ingredients, that sort of thing.

  

  Sally Schneider
  • People
  • Real
  • Love

• There's always going to be silly stuff out there in the media that you can't worry too much about, and I don't. We just keep on trucking, and I like the way my... I think there should be 'professional is professional, and personal is personal,' and that's just how I'm going to keep it.

  

  Aaron Rodgers
  • Worry
  • Professional
  • Media

• One can be a great poet and be politically stupid.

  

  Umberto Eco
  • Great
  • Stupid
  • Poet

• Ordinarily if an actor gets chosen for the lead in a film, he or she has already built up a repertoire, and everyone knows what he or she is capable of.

  

  Zhang Ziyi
  • Up
  • She
  • Film

• Being surrounded by love and people that care about your heart is the dream. That's what I would like on my last day.

  

  Rachel Boston
  • People
  • Heart
  • Love

• I have eighteen titles in the German language. I had a number one song in 1965.

  

  Wanda Jackson
  • Song
  • Language
  • German

• I love having wine with my meals. And if I splurge, I'm going to splurge big, because if I deny my cravings, it just ends up backfiring on me, you know?

  

  Rachel Nichols
  • Know
  • Ends
  • Deny

• The regularity with which we conclude that further advances in a particular field are impossible seems equaled only by the regularity with which events prove that we are of too limited vision. And it always seems to be those who have the fullest opportunity to know who are the most limited in view. What, then, is the trouble? I think that one answer should be: we do not realize sufficiently that the unknown is absolutely infinite, and that new knowledge is always being produced.

  

  Willis R. Whitney
  • Science
  • Opportunity
  • Knowledge

• If you push down that pyramid of power and spread out the base, every member gets a chance to file their bill and have it heard and file their amendment and have it heard, as opposed to the system that we have now, which closes out, closes down bills, limits debate, and so forth.

  

  Dan Webster
  • Power
  • Chance
  • Limits

• Prosecution I have managed to avoid; but I have been arrested, charged in a police court, have refused to be bound over, and thereupon have been unconditionally released - to my great regret; for I have always wanted to know what going to prison was like.

  

  Laurence Housman
  • Great
  • Police
  • Regret

• Do you have any ambitions outside racing? My main ambition at the moment, whether inside or outside racing, is to become Formula 1 World Champion.

  

  Kimi Raikkonen
  • World
  • Ambition
  • Champion

• It would be great if people never got angry at someone for doing something they've done themselves.

  

  Jack Roy
  • People
  • Great
  • Done

• Politics is the business of getting power and privilege without possessing merit. A politician is anyone who asks individuals to surrender part of their liberty- their power and privilege- to State, Masses, Mankind, Planet Earth, or whatever. This state, those masses, that mankind, and the planet will then be run by ... politicians.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • Business
  • Power
  • Earth