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
Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
— P.J. O’Rourke
At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child – miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats.
— P.J. O’Rourke
If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.
— P.J. O’Rourke
Politics are a lousy way for a free man to get things done.
— P.J. O’Rourke
When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.
— P.J. O’Rourke
The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop
— P.J. O’Rourke
Collectivism doesn’t work because it’s based on a faulty economic premise. There is no such thing as a person’s ‘fair share’ of wealth. The gross national product is not a pizza that must be carefully divided because if I get too many slices, you have to eat the box. The economy is expandable and, in any practical sense, limitless.
— P.J. O’Rourke, How to Explain Conservatism