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

—P. J. O'Rourke

politics money corruption legislation

About P. J. O'Rourke

Portrait of P. J. O'Rourke

Patrick Jake O'Rourke (November 14, 1947 – February 15, 2022) was an American author, journalist, and political satirist who wrote twenty-two books on subjects as diverse as politics, cars, etiquette, and economics. His books Parliament of Whores and Give War a Chance both reached No. 1 on The New York...

More quotations from 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

Drugs have taught an entire generation of Americans the metric system.

—P. J. O'Rourke

Cleanliness becomes more important when godliness is unlikely.

—P. J. O'Rourke

A hat should be taken off when you greet a lady and left off for the rest of your life. Nothing looks more stupid than a hat.

—P. J. O'Rourke

If government were a product, selling it would be illegal.

—P. J. O'Rourke

More quotations tagged with “corruption”

The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too.

—Oscar Levant

politics power USA wealth corruption

So long as every institution of today, economic, political, social, and moral, conspires to misdirect human energy into wrong channels; so long as most people are out of place doing the things they hate to do, living a life they loathe to live, crime will be inevitable, and all the laws on the statutes can only increase, but never do away with, crime.

—Emma Goldman

law crime corruption

Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

power faith corruption absolutes

Vote early and vote often.

humor democracy corruption

Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.

—George Bernard Shaw

power ignorance democracy corruption incompetence

History

8 Jul 2020 Added