Government Quotes by P. J. O'Rourke

The question nowadays is not what makes government work. The question is how do we make it stop.

— P. J. O'Rourke

What would annoy the most people most often? That is the true left-wing test of government intervention.

— P. J. O'Rourke

A world government run by the UN will be like getting an old, purblind, half-deaf substitute teacher.

— P. J. O'Rourke

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

— P. J. O'Rourke

In a free country, government is a dull and onerous responsibility. It is a parent-teacher conference.

— 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

Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then they get elected and prove it.

— P. J. O'Rourke

We'll run this planet as we please, and if you don't like it, go back where we came from.

— P. J. O'Rourke

If it were not for government regulation of big corporations, executives at companies like Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, they could have cheated investors…

— 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…

— P. J. O'Rourke

Our earliest evidence of government, in the ruins of Babylon and Egypt, shows nothing but ziggurats and pyramids of wasted taxpayer money,…

— P. J. O'Rourke

One of the things that makes me a conservative, or a libertarian, or whatever the heck it is that I am -…

— P. J. O'Rourke

It was Ronald Reagan who used to say that the 10 most frightening words in the English language are, "I'm from the…

— P. J. O'Rourke

There are lots of levels of fear and complaint about the government getting involved in business. First and foremost, of course, is…

— P. J. O'Rourke

You know, if government were a product, selling it would be illegal. Government is a health hazard. Governments have killed many more…

— P. J. O'Rourke

The inherent purpose of American government is let people seek their own goals and to encourage them to be responsible on the…

— P. J. O'Rourke

When a government controls both the economic power of individuals and the coercive power of the state ... this violates a fundamental…

— P. J. O'Rourke

[Friedrich] Hayek is not protesting that things like child labor and stuff are good. He's just trying to show that when government…

— P. J. O'Rourke

Newsmen believe that news is a tacitly acknowledged fourth branch of the federal system. This is why most news about government sounds…

— P. J. O'Rourke

Remember that all tax revenue is the result of holding a gun to somebody's head. Not paying taxes is against the law.…

— P. J. O'Rourke

Ever read any [Friedrich] Hayek? He's great. The Road To Serfdom is like... I'm not a big political-science reader, but I actually…

— P. J. O'Rourke

Social Security is a government program with a constituency made up of the old, the near old and those who hope or…

— P. J. O'Rourke

There are twenty-seven specific complaints against the British Crown set forth in the Declaration of Independence. To modern ears they still sound…

— P. J. O'Rourke

You know, if government were a product, selling it would be illegal. ... Government contains impure ingredients - as anybody who's looked…

— P. J. O'Rourke

When government does, occasionally, work, it works in an elitist fashion. That is, government is most easily manipulated by people who have…

— P. J. O'Rourke

Think of what big governments have gotten up to in this century : not one, but two world wars, the gulag, the…

— P. J. O'Rourke

Seriously. It was running out at Rolling Stone. First of all, they didn't feel the need for a dissident conservative voice in…

— P. J. O'Rourke

I'd known the people at Rolling Stone for a while. I'd gone to them with a piece I'd done on Beirut for…

— P. J. O'Rourke

Government isn't a good way to solve problems ... [G]overnment is concerned mostly with self-perpetuation and is subject to fantastic ideas about…

— P. J. O'Rourke

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

— P. J. O'Rourke

A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them.

— P. J. O'Rourke

The Three Branches of Government: Money, Television, and Bullshit

— P. J. O'Rourke

We need a government, alas, because of the nature of humans.

— P. J. O'Rourke

In theory, taxes should be like shopping. What I buy is government services. What I pay are my taxes.

— P. J. O'Rourke

Distracting a politician from governing is like distracting a bear from eating your baby.

— P. J. O'Rourke

War expands government powers. The trouble is that, when the war goes away, the government powers do not.

— P. J. O'Rourke

If we're free to do what we want, why does government always have a plan for us?

— P. J. O'Rourke

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

— P. J. O'Rourke

Guns are the ultimate bulwark against government misbehavior.

— P. J. O'Rourke

Government conspiracy? They can't even deliver our mail and it's got our address on it and everything!

— P. J. O'Rourke