P. J. O'Rourke Quotes

The People there are very Skilful in the use of Fire-Arms, being all their Lives accustom’d to shoot in the Woods. This, together with a little exercising would soon make the Militia little inferior to Regular Troops.

I am a very good sniper, and I can put five bullets into that red circle and I know how to throw hand grenades.

There is a great deal of romance attached to American gun use that should be examined more closely, such as the curious notion that Americans are somehow naturally brilliant shooters. The examination of historical specifics tends to undermine most myths. For example, it is estimated that the 7th Cavalry fired 40,000 rounds at Little Big Horn, killing sixty Indians and wounding one hundred.

People want to hear what I do with Special Forces, as a ranger, as a sniper. And I'm like 'What does that have to do with fighting?' Let's talk about fighting. They couldn't be more different; there's nothing similar about them.

I learned to assemble a rifle in the dark and was trained as a sniper so that I could hit the center of the target time after time. As it happened, I never did get into actual combat, but that didn't prevent my being severely wounded. I almost lost both my feet as a result of a bombing attack on Jerusalem.

I served as a Marine sniper for three years, and I believe the film 'American Sniper' depicted what we do perfectly.

I'm an eight-year Green Beret, Ranger, sniper.

And that is how we intend to destroy the enemy!" The superior shakes his head wearily. "Young man, the Soviets are our adversary. The Navy is the enemy.

A handgun at two hundred feet is the same thing as crossing your fingers and making a wish.

I learned to shoot more accurately because my teachers held the targets.

If you don't understand weapons you don't understand fighting. If you don't understand fighting you don't understand war. If you don't understand war you don't understand history. And if you don't understand history you might as well live with your head in a sack.

This is the substance of our Plot-For those who play the Perfect Shot, There are ten thousand who do not.

It was unknowable then, but so much of the progress that would define the 20th century, on both sides of the Atlantic, came down to the battle for a slice of beach only six miles long and two miles wide.

Use makes a better soldier than the most urgent considerations of duty,--familiarity with danger enabling him to estimate the danger. He sees how much is the risk, and is not afflicted with imagination; knows practically Marshal Saxe's rule, that every soldier killed costs the enemy his weight in lead.

Historical awareness is a kind of resurrection.

The history of mankind is his character.

Lincoln would be just like me. He wouldn't know what the hell to do.

The active cavalry of Scythia is always followed, in their most distant and rapid incursions, by an adequate number of spare horses, who may be occasionally used, either to redouble the speed, or to satisfy the hunger, of the barbarians. Many are the resources of courage and poverty.

Phoebe tapped the toe of her sneaker against the dock. “There’s only one good use for a man like Heath Champion.” “Here we go again,” Molly muttered. Phoebe’s lip curled. “Target practice.

The dignity of history.

It is not a sin to introduce a personal bias that can be recognized and discounted. The sin in historical composition is the organization of the story in such a way that bias cannot be recognized.

Thee are such horrible weapons. And so no sane leader would ever want to cross that line to using nuclear weapons. And, if you are not going to cross that line, then these things are basically useless.

Language is the archives of history.

History and war are cruel pedants. Those who know too little of the former are likely to have too much of the latter.

The past exudes legend: one can't make pure clay of time's mud. There is no life that can be recaptured wholly; as it was.Which is to say that all biography is ultimately fiction.