Quotes by P. J. O'Rourke

About P. J. O'Rourke:

Patrick Jake is an American political satirist, journalist, writer, and author. O'Rourke is the H. L. Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute and is a regular correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, The American Spectator, and The Weekly Standard, and frequent panelist on National Public Radio's game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!. Since 2011 O'Rourke has been a columnist at The Daily Beast. In the United Kingdom, he is known as the face of a long-running series of television advertisements for British Airways in the 1990s.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Fascism is very much a mob movement.

P. J. O'Rourke

My generation of Americans was the first to really care about racism and sexism, not to mention the I Ching, plus, of course, the Earth.

P. J. O'Rourke

In Hong Kong there is agglomeration beyond my fondest imaginings. The Kowloon district claims a population density four times that of New York City.

P. J. O'Rourke

President Bush said that if illegal immigrants want citizenship, they'd have to do three things: pay taxes, hold meaningful jobs, and learn English. Bush doesn't meet those qualifications.

P. J. O'Rourke

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

P. J. O'Rourke

You're not a baby boomer if you don't have a visceral recollection of a Kennedy and a King assassination, a Beatles breakup, a U.S. defeat in Vietnam, and a Watergate.

P. J. O'Rourke

A U.S. dollar is an IOU from the Federal Reserve Bank. It's a promissory note that doesn't actually promise anything. It's not backed by gold or silver.

P. J. O'Rourke

There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.

P. J. O'Rourke

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

You know your children are growing up when they stop asking you where they came from and refuse to tell you where they're going.

P. J. O'Rourke

The Clinton administration launched an attack on people in Texas because those people were religious nuts with guns. Hell, this country was founded by religious nuts with guns. Who does Bill Clinton think stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock?

P. J. O'Rourke

Seriousness is stupidity sent to college.

P. J. O'Rourke

Gossip is what you say about the objects of flattery when they aren't present.

P. J. O'Rourke

I rarely meet a politician that I don't like personally. They are generally well endowed with charm. Therein lies the danger.

P. J. O'Rourke

The world is being run by irresponsible spoiled brats.

P. J. O'Rourke

Ending wars is very simple if you surrender.

P. J. O'Rourke

The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year's Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you're married to.

P. J. O'Rourke

Humans are the only animals that have children on purpose with the exception of guppies, who like to eat theirs.

P. J. O'Rourke

A 'farm' today means 100,000 chickens in a space the size of a Motel 6 shower stall.

P. J. O'Rourke

Of all the American educational system's problems, none is more severe than the academic year beginning before Labor Day.

P. J. O'Rourke

Finland is a rich country. What have they got? They got Nokia phones and plywood. How'd they get so rich? Because they're free.

P. J. O'Rourke

Author Bio

  • NameP. J. O'Rourke
  • DescriptionAmerican journalist
  • BornNovember 14, 1947
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionJournalist; Author