P. J. O'Rourke Quotes

Little islands of human happiness, peace, and prosperity are so exceptional at this point in history that I'm not even sure we can draw lessons from them.

P. J. O'Rourke

• History
• Peace
• Happiness

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Quotes to Explore

• The reason for not getting married was that I just didn't have a partner to get married to. Climbing mountains was more attractive to me than marriage, or other fun things like that.

  

  Tamae Watanabe
  • Fun
  • Reason
  • Marriage

• The difference between eccentricity and originality in historical studies is often difficult to detect at first encounter. When a radically new interpretation of a large segment of history makes its appearance, time is needed to sift the evidence.

  

  Edmund Morgan
  • Time
  • History
  • New

• I don't use drugs, my dreams are frightening enough.

  

  M. C. Escher
  • Enough
  • Dreams
  • Use

• I've done a few studio films in the last few years where I feel like I've done good work, and then I only end up in two scenes. That's been very disappointing.

  

  Illeana Douglas
  • Up
  • Good
  • Work

• I had decided that if I was going to be a singer, I had to earn it. I had to learn how to play an instrument.

  

  Madonna Breakfast Club
  • Play
  • Learn
  • Singer

• Satan, the leader or dictator of devils, is the opposite, not of God, but of Michael.

  

  C. S. Lewis
  • God
  • Leader
  • Satan

• I did every job under the sun from bartending to ushering to temping.

  

  Natalie Dormer
  • Job
  • Sun
  • Did

• Painting what I experience, translating what I feel, is like a great liberation. But it is also work, self-examination, consciousness, criticism, struggle.

  

  Balthasar Klossowski de Rola
  • Work
  • Great
  • Experience

• You mustn't always believe what I say. Questions tempt you to tell lies, particularly when there is no answer.

  

  Pablo Picasso
  • Believe
  • You
  • Lies

• New Hampshire is moving in the right direction because we have shown time and time again that we can work across the aisle to solve problems.

  

  Maggie Hassan
  • Time
  • Work
  • Moving

• Persuade thyself that imperfection and inconvenience are the natural lot of mortals, and there will be no room for discontent, neither for despair.

  

  Ieyasu Tokugawa
  • Will
  • Despair
  • Imperfection

• At Cheney's initiative, the United States stripped terror suspects of long-established rights under domestic and international law, building a new legal edifice under exclusive White House ownership.

  

  Barton Gellman
  • Long
  • House
  • Law

• I would love to work with Reese Witherspoon.

  

  Olivia Holt
  • Work
  • Love
  • Would

• Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

  

  Barack Obama
  • Time
  • Change
  • Waiting

• Adventuring can be for the ordinary person with ordinary qualities, such as I regard myself.

  

  Edmund Hillary
  • Myself
  • Person
  • Ordinary

• We can succeed only by concert. It is not, 'Can any of us imagine better,' but, 'Can we all do better?'

  

  Abraham Lincoln
  • Better
  • Succeed
  • Concert

• To get a good deal, I buy them all with a friend. The houses, the boat, everything. We each buy half. So I pay half price! They get used more.

  

  Lars Larsen
  • Good
  • Friend
  • Boat

• Yusuf Qaradawi is probably the most well-known legal authority in the whole Muslim world today.

  

  Feisal Abdul Rauf
  • World
  • Today
  • Legal

• America is behind Europe and Japan in terms of accepting adult ideas in animation.

  

  Bill Plympton
  • America

• I had a spectacular four years as OpenTable CEO and remain an active executive chairman. I think, for me, some of the interesting observations there are, you know, global is important, mobile is extremely important. And then, network businesses are very attractive.

  

  Jeff Jordan
  • Important
  • Interesting

• I like to do my principal research in bars, where people are more likely to tell the truth or, at least, lie less convincingly than they do in briefings and books.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • People
  • Truth

• Normally, when politicians talk about 'cutting the budget,' they really mean reducing the amount of increase. Actual spending goes up while the politicians claim to have 'cut the budget.'

  

  Mark McKinnon
  • Up
  • Cutting

• People don't believe or understand that a community can lose hope. You can have a whole community where hopelessness is the norm, where folks don't have faith that things will get better because history and circumstances have proven over 30, 40, or 50 years that things don't get better.

  

  Geoffrey Canada
  • People
  • Believe
  • History

• Little islands of human happiness, peace, and prosperity are so exceptional at this point in history that I'm not even sure we can draw lessons from them.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • History
  • Peace
  • Happiness