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

—P. J. O'Rourke

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

Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

—P. J. O'Rourke

Never wear anything that panics the cat.

—P. J. O'Rourke

fashion cats cloths

Nothing bad's going to happen to us. If we get fired, it's not failure; it's a midlife vocational reassessment.

—P. J. O'Rourke

Skiing consists of wearing $3,000 worth of clothes and equipment and driving 200 miles in the snow in order to stand around at a bar and drink.

—P. J. O'Rourke

sports alcohol drinking snow skiing

Very little is known of the Canadian country since it is rarely visited by anyone but the Queen and illiterate sport fishermen.

—P. J. O'Rourke

More quotations tagged with “government”

You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too.

—John Kenneth Galbraith

Before my term has ended, we shall have to test anew whether a nation organized and governed such as ours can endure. The outcome is by no means certain.

—John F. Kennedy

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

—James Madison

The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office.

—H. L. Mencken

I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.

—H. L. Mencken

History

11 Jul 2015 Added