P J Quotes

There is not enough funding for basic sciences in India. We have to invest in a big way, and I am pushing that idea. ~ A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

We all know how 'modern democracies take loaves from the wealthy.' It's the slipups in the 'pass them out to the poor' department that inspire a study of Economics. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

During the mid-1980s dairy farmers decided there was too much cheap milk at the supermarket. So the government bought and slaughtered 1.6 million dairy cows. How come the government never does anything like this with lawyers? ~ P. J. O'Rourke

The Afghans themselves say that if you put two Afghans in a room, you get three factions. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

The 1960s was an era of big thoughts. And yet, amazingly, each of these thoughts could fit on a T-shirt. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

There's something about Marxism that brings out warts; the only kind of growth this economic system encourages. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Not much was really invented during the Renaissance, if you don't count modern civilization. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Rich white Protestant men have held on to some measure of power in America almost solely by getting women, blacks, and other disadvantaged groups to wear crippling foot fashions. This keeps them too busy with corns and bunions to compete in the job market. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

I was never a Democrat. I went from Republican to Maoist and then back again. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Upbeat is for people who want to feel good about their cause: the reformers, the progressives, the revolutionaries, the utopians, the collectivists, and the rest of the altruistic scum of the earth. Why do these people want to feel good? They want to feel good in order to convince themselves that they are good. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

No industry in living memory has collapsed faster than daily print journalism. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Filthy tight, the dress is filthy
I'm falling flat and my arms are empty
Clear the way, better get it out of this room
A fallen woman in dancing costume ~ P.J. Harvey

The car provided Americans with an enviable standard of living. You could not get a steady job with high wages and health and retirement benefits working on the General Livestock Corporation assembly line putting udders on cows. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

I reminded myself that the best way to win was to not need to win. The best performances are accomplished when you are relaxed and free of doubt. I ~ A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Happy hour is slightly different in the Soviet Union. There are no ice cubes or orange-peel twists in the vodka. Also, it lasts all day. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

My ignorance is widespread. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

I work on words, mostly, toward them being poetry or short stories, and then some of those become songs. They all find their place in the world, but they all start off in the same place. I'm always painting and drawing as well, and it's an ongoing creative assignment. ~ P.J. Harvey

One of the problems with being a writer is that all of your idiocies are still in print somewhere. I strongly support paper recycling. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

You can't get good chinese takeout in China and cuban cigars are rationed in Cuba. That's all you need to know about communism. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

To say that you have lived, you first have to live; not merely exist. ~ P.J. Roscoe

My glance fell upon a beautiful flower;
the universe turned around her.
- Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent ~ P.J. Parker

There seems to be an attitude problem, as if we cannot shake ourselves out of a mindset of limited achievement. ~ A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

It Is Very Easy To Defeat Someone, But It Is Very Hard To Win Someone ~ A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Germans respond well to lies. At least, they always have historically. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Opinions of language are as interesting as opinions of arithmetic. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Charles McCarry is the best modern writer on the subject of intrigue - by the breadth of Alan Furst, by the fathom of Eric Ambler, by any measure. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Nobody is making Americans buy Chinese goods. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

One of the reporters must have flunked journalism school because he asked a question that went straight to the point. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Men write great romance because they have more at stake ~ P.J. Bayliss

Every generation finds the drug it needs. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Jack Abramoff is the world's best lobbyist - for the Federal Penitentiary System. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Everybody with a gun has a checkpoint in Lebanon. And in Lebanon, you'd be crazy not to have a gun. Though, I assure you, all the crazy people have guns, too. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Don't send funny greeting cards on birthdays or at Christmas. Save them for funerals, when their cheery effect is needed. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Imagine a weight-loss program at the end of which, instead of better health, good looks, and hot romantic prospects, you die. Somalia had become just this kind of spa. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

I knew I was putting you under immense pressure when I rejected your work the other day. I set an impossible deadline - yet you have met it with work that I can only call outstanding. As your teacher, I had to push you to your limits so that you could recognize your own true potential. ~ A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Watching Republicans in Washington is like watching lemmings, if lemmings jumped into cesspools instead of off cliffs. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

How a peaceful, uncrowded place with ample wherewithal stays poor is hard to explain. How a conflict-ridden, grossly over-populated place with no resources whatsoever gets rich is simple. The British colonial government turned Hong Kong into an economic miracle by doing nothing. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

College professors used to be badly paid and worth it. Colleges used to be modest institutions; they should go back to being modest institutions. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

The Chinese had gunpowder, but it didn't occur to them to put it in a gun. They possessed the compass but didn't go anywhere. They invented paper, printing, and a written form of their language, but hardly anyone in China was taught to read. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

When politics are used to allocate resources, the resources all end up being allocated to politics. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

You don't despair about something like the Middle East, you just do the best you can. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

The real alternative to power of the rich is not power of the poor. It's just plain power. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

No sanction can stand against ignited minds. ~ A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Women are successful in the business world because the business world was created by men. Men are babies. And women areGood With Kids. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

I don't even know which end of a computer one is supposed to gaze into. I've never used a computer. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

The one thing that's terrible about traveling for fun is writing about it. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

There's not a woman in the book, the plot hinges on unkindness to animals, and the black characters mostly drown by Chapter 29. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

The killjoys initiated automobile crash standards so rigorous that we can't buy a car that hasn't been dropped from the top of a phone pole with our whole family strapped inside. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

President Bush said that if illegal immigrants want citizenship, they'd have to do three things: pay taxes, hold meaningful jobs, and learn English. Bush doesn't meet those qualifications. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

that a lot of what happens in our lives is predetermined and that the only way forward is to accept what has happened and to move on. Who knew, perhaps what destiny had in store would be better than what one is grieving over now. ~ A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Dream is not what we see in sleep, dream is what that does not allow us to sleep.. ~ A P J Kalam

The main reason to be opposed to political control of smoking is to keep power -even the smallest and silliest kind of power - out of the hands of ... members of a dangerous class -the class that knows what's good for us better than we do. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Even the dumber parts of our government are not run by idiots. These are ordinary people like us, doing a job. By and large, they're trying to do it as well as they can. Or at least as often as people in the private sector try to do as well as they can. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Medical researchers don't know much about head lice because they don't much care. The reason that they don't much care is, paradoxically, that they know a lot. That is, they know one important thing: there is no evidence that head lice transmit disease. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Feeling good about government is like looking on the bright side of any catastrophe. When you quit looking on the bright side, the catastrophe is still there. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

They are just really stupid people in Hollywood. You write them a script, and they say they love it, they absolutely love it. Then they say, 'But doesn't it need a small dog, and an Eskimo, and shouldn't it be set in New Guinea?' And you say, 'But it is a sophisticated romantic comedy set in Paris.' ~ P. J. O'Rourke

A deadly sins addendum is long overdue. Life has changed since Pope Gregory the Great scribbled his initial list in the sixth century. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

There are no nonsmokers in this business. Just people trying to quit, and people who haven't started yet. ~ P.J. Tracy

I just wasn't cut out to be a Chinese Tiger Mom. I'm more of an Irish Setter Dad. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

You can always reason with a German. You can always reason with a barnyard animal, too, for all the good it does. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

There's so much you can do with laying words on a bed of music. You can completely change their meaning with the type of music or the way they're sung. ~ P.J. Harvey

Never Refuse Wine. It is an odd but universally held opinion that anyone who doesn't drink must be an alcoholic. ~ 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

When the government runs out of lenders, it can do something that households are forbidden to do: print money. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Man needs difficulties in life because they are necessary to enjoy the success. ~ A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Detroit is beautiful - though you probably have to be a child of the industrial Midwest, like me, to see it. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

It's better to spend money like there's no tomorrow than to spend tonight like there's no money. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Eight years in the Wolston academy and I knew it all came down to the next 90 minutes. ~ P.J. Davitt

P.J. said, "That's true about any statement we make, isn't it? We never tell as much as we know."
"Right! So We're lying. So almost every statement is a lie, we can't help it."
"Yeah. But some statements are more lies than others. ~ Joyce Carol Oates

The wise traveler [to Beirut] will pack shirts or blouses with ample breast pockets. Reaching inside a jacket for your passport looks too much like going for the draw and puts armed men out of countinence ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Once you've built the big machinery of political power, remember you won't always be the one to run it. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Conservatives really don't believe in politics as the primary instrument of getting along in life and therefore don't tend to put their energy into it a way people left of center do. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Some people think that welfare reform should have hurt Bill Clinton with black voters. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

as a society we are trained to not question the status quo. ~ A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

How can I become an aeronautical scientist? ~ A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

If everybody's behavior can be explained by simple stupidity and greed, there's no point in assuming a conspiracy. ~ P. J. Plauger

Fiscal conservatism is just an easy way to express something that is a bit more difficult, which is that the size and scope of government, and really the size and scope of politics in our lives, has grown uncomfortable, unwieldy, intrusive and inefficient. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Your money does not cause my poverty. Refusal to believe this is at the bottom of most bad economic thinking. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

In thirteen years, every aspect of the universe can change - ask a thirteen-year-old. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

The divorce rate in 1946 was higher than it ever had been and as high as it ever would be until the '70s. The reason was that prior relationships had not endured the strain of war. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Climbing to the top demands strength, whether it is to the top of Mount Everest or to the top of your career. ~ A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Thanksgiving is so called because we are all so thankful that it only comes once a year. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Joci took a deep breath, "Earlier tonight when you were thanking people for
helping with the ride tomorrow. You called me baby. Do you remember that?"
Jeremiah looked at Joci and touched her face with his forefinger.
"Yes, I wanted you to know that I wanted you. And, I guess I wanted everyone
to know how I feel about you. ~ P.J. Fiala

And, by the way, how come all the people who were so in favor of unilateral nuclear disarmament are so opposed to unilateral protection against nukes? ~ P. J. O'Rourke

The complexity of economics can be calculated mathematically. Write out the algebraic equation that is the human heart and multiply each unknown by the population of the world. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Never wear anything that panics the cat. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

The most brilliant satire of all time was 'A Modest Proposal' by Jonathan Swift. You'll notice how everything got straightened out in Ireland within days of that coming out. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Smoking crack is a way for people who couldn't afford college to study the works of Charles Darwin. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

The great majority of Baghdad is a slum - a lot of it's new, but it's still slum. It's usually this concrete-block, one-room design with a door and a window, arranged one-up, one-down, often with a shop with nothing in it on the first floor, and then a one-room apartment above it. There's street after street after street of that stuff. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Some day you will be wheeled in for a heart bypass operation, and a surgeon will be the person who is now behind the counter when you renew your car registration at the department of motor vehicles. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Israel is slightly smaller than New Jersey. Moses in effect led the tribes of Israel out of the District of Columbia, parted Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis, and wandered for forty years in Delaware. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Great scientists are persevering and never deterred by difficulties ~ A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Some women want the strong silent type, so they can tell him to shut up and rearrange the furniture. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Don't stop with your first draft. ~ P. J. Plauger

Passover is my idea of a perfect holiday. Dear God, when you're handing out plagues of darkness, locusts, hail, boils, flies, lice, frogs, and cattle murrain, and turning the Nile to blood and smiting the firstborn, give me a pass. And tell me when it's over. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Anyhow, all mankind's ideas and interests, all human aims and motives, are exhibited, fully formed, in a three-year-old child. The kid is just operating on a smaller scale and lacks the advantage of having made enormous soft-money campaign contributions to political candidates. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Politicians will talk strategy and tactics and policies and programs until they're blue in the face, or you strangle them and they turn blue. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Golf combines two favorite American pastimes: taking long walks and hitting things with a stick. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Modern elites live in bubbles of liberal affluence like Ann Arbor, Brookline, the Upper West Side, Palo Alto, or Chevy Chase. These places used to have impoverished neighborhoods nearby, but the poor people got chased out by young singles living in group homes, hipsters, and urban homesteading gay couples. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

Moviemakers are rewarded with tax write-offs if, when seeking a location that looks like America, they seek it in America. ~ P. J. O'Rourke