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Quotes from Parliament of Whores — P. J. O'Rourke

1947–2022 United States

← All quotes by P. J. O'Rourke

10 quotes

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

Parliament of Whores (1991)

There’s a whiff of the lynch mob or the lemming migration about any overlarge concentration of like-thinking individuals, no matter how virtuous their cause.

Parliament of Whores (1991)

Authority has always attracted the lowest elements in the human race. All through history mankind has been bullied by scum.

Parliament of Whores (1991)

The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop.

Parliament of Whores (1991)

The collegiate idealists who fill the ranks of the environmental movement seem willing to do absolutely anything to save the biosphere, except take science courses and learn something about it.

Parliament of Whores (1991)

When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.

Parliament of Whores (1991)

Many reporters, when they go to work in the nation’s capital, begin thinking of themselves as participants in the political process instead of glorified stenographers.

Parliament of Whores (1991)

Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us.

Parliament of Whores (1991)

The whole idea of our government is this: If enough people get together and act in concert, they can take something and not pay for it.

Parliament of Whores (1991)

Daniel Patrick Moynihan is the archetypal extremely smart person who went into politics anyway instead of doing something worthwhile for his country. So maybe he owes all of us an apology...

Parliament of Whores (1991)

Attribution

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