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Quotes from All the Trouble in the World — P. J. O'Rourke

1947–2022 United States

← All quotes by P. J. O'Rourke

38 quotes

Haitians weren't screwed-up, but everything political, intellectual, and material around them is.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

People who are wise, good, smart, skillful, or hardworking don't need politics, they have jobs.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

Of course, the humans in Haiti have hope. They hope to leave.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

Personally, I believe a rocking hammock, a good cigar, and a tall gin-and-tonic is the way to save the planet.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

People with a mission to save the earth want the earth to seem worse than it is so their mission will look more important.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

I guess the argument of contextuality is that anything is okay as long as it's done by people who are sufficiently unlike you.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

One thing that's certain about going outdoors: When you come back inside, you'll be scratching.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

Sloths move at the speed of congressional debate but with greater deliberation and less noise.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

When a thing defies physical law, there's usually politics involved.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

Somalia is so bad that making a mess improves the place.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

Saigon is like all the other great modern cities of the world. It's the mess left from people getting rich.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

Violence is interesting. This is a great obstacle to world peace and also to more thoughtful television programming.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

A careful reading of 50 Simple Things leaves you wondering whether you're going to die from environmental disaster or intellectual annoyance. Failing either, you can worry yourself to death.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

Fretting about overpopulation, is a perfect guilt-free— indeed, sanctimonious— way for "progressives" to be racists.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

It's hard to come back from the Balkans and not sound like a Pete Seeger song.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

Any person who has spent time outdoors actually doing something, such as hunting and fishing as opposed to standing there with a doobie in his mouth, knows nature is not intrinsically healthy.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

Idealism is based on big ideas. And, as anybody who has ever been asked "What's the big idea?" knows, most big ideas are bad ones.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

When a private entity does not produce the desired results, it is (certain body parts excepted) done away with. But a public entity gets bigger.

All the Trouble in the World (1994)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: P. J. O'Rourke (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.