The Funny Stuff: The Official P. J. O’Rourke Quotationary and Riffapedia

The late American journalist and libertarian political humorist O’Rourke (1947–2022) had a prolific career, having reported for and run the foreign affairs desk at Rolling Stone and authored some 20 books (including 1992’s Give War a Chance). This volume collects hundreds of quotes from his many published works. O’Rourke was best known for his libertarian political satire, but this collection is not limited to quips about government (“A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them”) and war (“Wherever there’s injustice, oppression, and suffering, America will show up six months late and bomb the country next to where it’s happening”); O’Rourke also weighs in on culture, technology, and fishing. The quotes, which range in length from one sentence to a paragraph or two, are sorted into six sections (“America and Americans”; “Good Clean Fun”; “My Generation [Baby Boomers]”), each of which is further divided into an alphabetical list of subtopics.