Government proposes, bureaucracy disposes. And the bureaucracy must dispose of government proposals by dumping them on us.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
I like to do my principal research in bars, where people are more likely to tell the truth or, at least, lie less convincingly than they do in briefings and books.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote humorously suggests that people are more honest in casual settings like bars than in formal situations.
P. J. O'Rourke highlights the idea that informal environments, such as bars, can foster greater honesty in conversations. In contrast to more structured settings like briefings or books, where information might be filtered or less genuine, a bar's relaxed atmosphere encourages people to express themselves more openly, even if it's still a blend of truth and embellishment.
Themes
HonestyTruthBarsResearchCasual
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a discussion about how environments affect communication during a social event.
More from P. J. O'Rourke
All quotes βAlways read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
Predicting innovation is something of a self-canceling exercise: the most probable innovations are probably the least innovative.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
I spend my days kneeling in the muck of language, feeling around for gooey verbs, nouns, and modifiers that I can squash together to make a blob of a sentence that bears some likeness to reason and sense.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
The idea of a news broadcast once was to find someone with information and broadcast it. The idea now is to find someone with ignorance and spread it around.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
Similar quotes
No-one is exempt from speaking nonsense β the only misfortune is to do it solemnly.
Michel De MontaigneRead
If the Martians ever find out how human beings think, they'll kill themselves laughing.
Albert EllisRead
Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.
Kurt VonnegutRead
He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument.
William ShakespeareRead
I am truly a product of Hollywood in-breeding. When two celebrities mate, someone like me is the result.
Carrie FisherRead
It was sad, like those businessmen who came to work in serious clothes but wore colorful ties in a mad, desperate attempt to show there was a free spirit in there somewhere.
Terry PratchettRead