P. J. O'Rourke Quotes

We’re not so free that we don’t have to listen to rules, and laws, and regulations. Those are important. But the spirit, the freedom of the spirit, that’s what I think of American Dream, that we are free here to do what we want to do, what we set out to do.

Just as man must have liberty to think and speak, so he must have liberty in food, dress, and marriage, and in every other thing, so long as he does not injure others.

Libertarians argue that no normal adult has the right to impose choices on other normal adults, except in abnormal circumstances, such as when one person finds another unconscious and administers medical assistance or calls an ambulance.

I believe everybody got the right to live their own life the way they want to.

There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please.

Liberty isn't a thing you are given as a present. You can be a free man under a dictatorship. It is sufficient if you struggle against it.

Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual liberty.

I believe in only one thing and that thing is human liberty.

Every man is free to do that which he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man.

Responsibility is the price every man must pay for freedom.

The state can't give you freedom, and the state can't take it away. You're born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free.

The loss of free will I find unacceptable - what most of us refer to as rights.

I do esteem individual liberty above everything.

I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.

All I'm for is the liberty of the individual.

Man above all institutions!

The individual is greater than the state.

Freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society, and made by the legislative power vested in it; a liberty to follow my own will in all things, when the rule prescribes not, and not to be subject to the inconstant, unknown, arbitrary will of another man.

We have the right to be idiots.

I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.

Why is freedom such a hard sell? That's the question. In this country, why has the idea of individual liberty and responsibility become such a hard sell? That's something I never thought would happen here.

Pakistan is a free country, so according to me, in a free country, it's every right of the citizen to live the way they wish.

The freedom of America is the freedom to live your own life and take your own chances.

The price of freedom is responsibility, but it's a bargain, because freedom is priceless.

This I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual.