P. J. O'Rourke Quotes

Don't be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life.

One of the things I noticed is that people really change when they realize their expiration date is coming, and they know what it is. Most of us don't: we just hope we can live as long as we can and do as much good as we can.

I think about death all the time. I think that's a good thing because we're all going to die, and the only thing we can control is how we are and what we're doing in the meantime.

I think the idea is when you're on your death bed to say you did a lot of different, interesting things, not just that you have a more expensive lining in your coffin.

I know that one day I'm going to die. I want to accomplish as much as I can before I do.

I don't want to take anything to the grave. I want to die used up and emptied out. I don't want to carry around anything I don't have to. I want to travel light.

He will live ill who does not know how to die well.

Mere longevity is a good thing for those who watch Life from the side lines. For those who play the game, an hour may be a year, a single day's work an achievement for eternity.

Every day we wake up, we have an opportunity to do some good, but there's so much bad that you have to navigate to get to the good.

I hope that, when I leave this planet, I will have touched a few people in a positive way. That's really what I hope I am remembered for the most.

I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

The ideal death, I think, is what was the ideal Victorian death, you know, with your grandchildren around you, a bit of sobbing. And you say goodbye to your loved ones, making certain that one of them has been left behind to look after the shop.

Death seems to be a long way off. Is this not shallow thinking? It is worthless and is only a joke within a dream. It will not do to think in such a way and be negligent. Insofar as death is always at one's door, one should make sufficient effort and act quickly.

You know, we live in a time when if somebody wants to kill you, they're going to kill you, and you can either go in a hole and, you know, pull the roof in over you, or you just continue putting one foot in front of the other and hope that you're doing some good in the world.

It's terrible to realize you don't learn how to live until you're ready to die, and then it's too late.

I always think that good writers should be growing up on the brink of death - it really lets them see mortality very clearly.

Life is the game that must be played, this truth at least, good friends, we know; so live and laugh, nor be dismayed as one by one the phantoms go.

Every man dies. Not every man lives.

Occasions for defining moments do not arise every day. When they do, we must seize the opportunities they present for improving everyone's life.

In the medium or long term we'll all be dead. Let's deal with the problems at hand.

Good fame is like fire; when you have kindled you may easily preserve it; but if you extinguish it, you will not easily kindle it again.

You live till you die, and that's the end of it. What good is your legacy when you are dead? I worry about being alive, selling work, having fun, moving and doing things when I am alive.

My deceased patients have taught me over the years to believe in the glass half full, to make good use of the time we have, to be generous - that was their lesson for the Uber-mind, and it was free. 'Do that,' they said, 'and then perhaps death shall have no dominion.'

There's nothing better than seeing people you know being able to work and support their families. Knowing you have a little hand in it? Now, that really makes you feel good.

Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death.