FastSaying

Political discourse has become so rotten that it's no longer possible to tell the stench of one presidential candidate from the stink of another.


P. J. O'Rourke

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The 2012 presidential campaign's turn away from the classic, straight-up, American election - wh...
JUAN WILLIAMS It's very much the currency of discourse on social media where political disagreements very quic...
NICOLA STURGEON With its emphasis on star power, the Obama campaign from Day One emphasized the candidate's perf...
ANDREW BREITBART A libertarian presidential candidate isn't going to win anyway, so he can afford to say that all...
L. NEIL SMITH No Republican presidential candidate is a viable option for pro-choice voters of any political philo...
CHRISTINE PELOSI We could smell the stench from rotten leaves and timber from 500 feet in a helicopter.
PETE JOHNSON this now has become a major political issue in the presidential election.
RAY FLYNN I'm a storyteller. I feel like the issue of discourse is an important one because there's a ...
AYAD AKHTAR From my perspective, I think the question of how we build a better future is an extremely important ...
PETER THIEL It's no longer possible to think of the physical and digital as two different worlds.
ANGELA AHRENDTS On the other side, I do believe that the rhetoric we are seeing from the Democrats today is unpreced...
ED GILLESPIE We have a presidential candidate who's deleted emails and done things illegally and is a preside...
COLIN KAEPERNICK Always Be Ready For Anything that Comes: Bananas, Chips, College, an Opportunity, so when it does yo...
DANIEL OJEDA He said that academia reminded him of a badly run circus. The faculty members were like underfed ani...
SUSAN HUBBARD I was looking for a name with an old English sound, very easy to pronounce in every language and eas...
DIEGO DELLA VALLE A simple and heart-warming fable, one might think - in which case, one would reveal oneself to be an...
J.K. ROWLING My refusal to remove the book from the library was backed by a majority of the Board of Governors. I...
J.K. ROWLING But the life that no longer trust another human being and no longer forms ties to the political comm...
MARTHA NUSSBAUM It is no bad thing celebrating a simple life.
J.R.R. TOLKIEN Though he walked and breathed, and about him living leaves and flowers were stirred by the same cool...
J.R.R. TOLKIEN As a presidential candidate, Mr. Trump is going to get tough questions from the press and has to ans...
RANDY FALCO No one has the right to place one human being in a position of political power over another.
WENDY MCELROY It's no longer possible to simply build English country houses out of words, because they've...
LEV GROSSMAN I loved Emma.' The words, so flat and final, explode into the air. 'But she lied to me. I thought pe...
J.P. DELANEY Under the authority of a language that had been carefully expurgated so that it was no longer direct...
MICHEL FOUCAULT I tell people that the history of Mozilla and Firefox is so one of a kind that it should not be used...
MITCH KAPOR In America, we have so many movies and so much media about the Islamic world, the sub-continental wo...
MIRA NAIR In this country, we don't dare to pronounce the word 'Arab' or 'black,' ... Because of political bli...
AZOUZ BEGAG You take after Bilbo,' said Gandalf. 'There is more about you than meets the eye, as I said of him l...
J.R.R. TOLKIEN I don't know if I have a favorite color.
KATE MIDDLETON It's very special having a new little girl.
KATE MIDDLETON I no longer believe that we can keep silent. We never really do, mind you. In one way or another we ...
AZAR NAFISI Singing is a way of escaping. It's another world. I'm no longer on earth.
EDITH PIAF The unfortunate thing is that, sometimes, we slip, but, fortunately, consciously or unconsciously, w...
ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH Nixon has enough to overcome in terms of his legacy and his political history. Now he has to overcom...
MONICA CROWLEY Some film actors want to sit back and look at every scene and all that crap. No, you're an actor...
CLARKE PETERS We also have to make sure our children know the history of women. Tell them the rotten truth: It was...
ANNE ROIPHE The heart of another is a dark forest, always, no matter how close it has been to one's own.
WILLA CATHER J. P. Morgan. He was kind of a douche.
T. J. MILLER The attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi has become a political football in the presidential cam...
DAVID IGNATIUS You are wise and fearless and fair, Lady Galadriel,' said Frodo. 'I will give you the One Ring, if y...
J.R.R. TOLKIEN It has become clear that Gordon Brown's budget forecasts are no longer in the realms of possibility.
DAVID KERN Presidential primary debates are an important part of our political process. But the media has wrest...
MARK MCKINNON The vice presidential candidate tends to be a bit of an afterthought.
MARY CHENEY The Hippocratic Oath says do no harm. It's the Hypocritical Oath that says do no harm to one'...
MARK MCKINNON How can you tell when a political ideology has become the equivalent of a religion?
ANDREW SULLIVAN It's extraordinary to me - you cannot name a presidential candidate in history who has singlehan...
PETER NAVARRO Architecture is a discourse; everything is a discourse. Fashion discourse is actually a micro-discou...
NATE LOWMAN No presidential candidate should visit Las Vegas without condemning organized gambling.
RALPH NADER Despite the massive attempts of rigging, our returns indicate our presidential candidate has won wit...
IBRAHIM LIPUMBA Put your mind to it and you will do it. This is how the impossible become possible
SOTONYE ANGA There's no limit possible to the expansion of each one of us.
CHARLES M. SCHWAB A candidate could easily commit political suicide if he were to come up with an unconventional thoug...
E.B. (ELWYN BROOKS) WHITE I invited Intuition to stay in my house when my roommates went North. I warned her that I am territo...
J. RUTH GENDLER Sensuality does not wear a watch but she always gets to the essential places on time. She is adventu...
J. RUTH GENDLER The light sprang up again, and there on the brink of the chasm, at the very Crack of Doom, stood Fro...
J.R.R. TOLKIEN How should I know?" said Alice, surprised at her own courage. "It's no business of mine."
The Q...
LEWIS CARROLL It's become unfashionable to celebrate political achievement, and Labour achievement even less s...
LUCY POWELL I realize something. I haven't had a single flashback or panic attack since I stepped inside the hou...
J.P. DELANEY You don't find interesting stuff because you don't search enough, ... every book has it's own lesson...
DEYTH BANGER Who can guarantee that he [Alexander Milinkevich, a Belarussian opposition presidential candidate] i...
ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO What a brutish master sin is, taking the joy from one's life, stealing money and health, giving ...
JIM ELLIOT We are now physically, politically, and economically one world and nations so interdependent that th...
JOHN BOYD ORR Name the fears that are holding you back. It's the equivalent of flooding the boogeyman with light.
GINA GREENLEE The longer people are unemployed, the less employable they become. Skills become rusty; managers loo...
NINA EASTON So they disputed with one another about their affair and kept the discourse secret.
QURAN Aukeman quotes Norman Mailer:
"No wonder then that these have been the years of conformity and ...
ANASTASIA AUKEMAN It's no longer good enough for us to tell kids who are different that it's gonna get better....
RICK MERCER to vote only for one (1) presidential candidate and that they are to punch a hole next to the arrow ...
ROBERT WEXLER The problem was you had to keep choosing between one evil or another, and no matter what you chose, ...
CHARLES BUKOWSKI Nothing can so alienate a voter from the political system as backing a winning candidate.
CLARENCE DARROW Nothing can so alienate a voter from the political system as backing a winning candidate.
MARK B. COHEN My style is colloquial storytelling. It's the way we tell stories to one another - it's not ...
JAMES PATTERSON As someone who's been covering presidential campaigns since the 1950s, I have no delusions about...
DAN RATHER I can no longer stomach the systemic political decay that has weakened our democracy,
RALPH NADER An experienced slush-pile reader doesn't need more than a few seconds to see if a story has pote...
GARDNER DOZOIS And men said that the blood of the stars flowed in her veins
C.S. LEWIS I know the compassion of others is a relief at first. I don't despise it. But it can't quench pain, ...
GEORGES BERNANOS It's useful to go out of this world and see it from the perspective of another one.
TERRY PRATCHETT I love the powerful woman who's complicated. There's no push to be one thing or another thin...
AJA NAOMI KING Any Democratic candidate will no longer receive funding from the DCCC and anyone who participates in...
MARTIN FROST Loving someone who never loved you, is like remembering a face you never saw.
No matter how har...
RATISH EDWARDS There will be things I won't tell you ever ,
Then there will be things that you won't ever lis...
RATISH EDWARDS I wish I could see you some day,
Just for a moment, just see you,

I wish I could h...
RATISH EDWARDS It has now become the doctrine of a large clan of politicians that political honesty is unnecessary,...
ANTHONY TROLLOPE Sinatra's endurance has become a rallying point for many people who feel that their sacrifices a...
PETE HAMILL No one has the right to destroy another person's belief by demanding empirical evidence.
ANN LANDERS During the period of capital moving from one employment to another, the profits on that to which cap...
DAVID RICARDO France has the least social mobility of any developed country. The social elevator no longer works. ...
XAVIER NIEL Let go! Gollum,' he said. 'This is Sting. You have seen it before once upon a time. Let go, or you'l...
J.R.R. TOLKIEN Frodo gave a cry, and there he was, fallen upon his knees at the chasm's edge. But Gollum, dancing l...
J.R.R. TOLKIEN Oh, hasn't he told you? The ones before. None of them last, you see. That's the whole point.
J.P. DELANEY Under democracy one party always devotes it's chief energies to prove that the other party is unfit ...
H.L. MENCKEN The Lord seeks to establish status quo before His return. He is gathering His sheep, His birds, His ...
HENRIETTA NEWTON MARTIN -SENIOR LEGAL CONSULTANT & AUTHOR Two truths are all too often overshadowed in today's political discourse: Public service is a mo...
OLYMPIA SNOWE No candidate can win a presidential race advocating gay marriage and opposing the military action in...
DICK MORRIS Since the emergence of Facebook, so many persons have become so vulnerable that they no longer have ...
ETC WANYANWU I want to keep pushing the limits to see what's possible. That's the nice thing about ski ra...
LINDSEY VONN ‎"Never take for granted these special gifts we have been given. In the parable of the talents we ...
TOM BAKER AKA THE PONDERING MAN The Jews invented a portable religion in the shape of the Bible, the Torah, and eventually the Talmu...
SIMON SCHAMA

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P. J. O'ROURKE Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the ...
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P. J. O'ROURKE As a nation, Kuwait has been, arguably, free of freedom itself. Claimed in turn by Constantinople, R...
P. J. O'ROURKE What Enron was doing, what caused investors to embrace it in a rapture of baffled awe, was hiding de...
P. J. O'ROURKE There are a number of Americans who shouldn't vote. The number is 57 percent, to judge by the co...
P. J. O'ROURKE The good news is that, according to the Obama administration, the rich will pay for everything. The ...
P. J. O'ROURKE A Kindle returns us to the inconvenience of the scroll, except with batteries and electronic glitche...
P. J. O'ROURKE Government is a health hazard. Governments have killed many more people than cigarettes or unbuckled...
P. J. O'ROURKE If it were not for government regulation of big corporations, executives at companies like Enron, Wo...
P. J. O'ROURKE You can learn all about the human condition from covering the crime beat in a big city - you don'...
P. J. O'ROURKE The perpetuation of slavery, the exile and extermination of American Indians, and the passage of Jim...
P. J. O'ROURKE Northwest Ohio is flat. There isn't much up. The land is so flat that a child from Toledo is und...
P. J. O'ROURKE The 20th century was a test bed for big ideas - fascism, communism, the atomic bomb.
P. J. O'ROURKE A fundamental American question is, 'What's the big idea?'
P. J. O'ROURKE Preachers at black churches are the last people left in the English-speaking world who know the sche...
P. J. O'ROURKE Politics is a necessary evil, or a necessary annoyance, a necessary conundrum.
P. J. O'ROURKE If I were a congressman who had voted for the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, I'd claim it w...
P. J. O'ROURKE The inherent purpose of American government is let people seek their own goals and to encourage them...
P. J. O'ROURKE Detroit's industrial ruins are picturesque, like crumbling Rome in an 18th-century etching.
P. J. O'ROURKE I like fiction and the kind of history that gives the grace and flavor of fiction to the past. No bl...
P. J. O'ROURKE Daniel Patrick Moynihan is the archetypal extremely smart person who went into politics anyway inste...
P. J. O'ROURKE Kids are disorganized.
P. J. O'ROURKE People say free trade causes dislocation. In actual fact, it's the lowering of trade barriers th...
P. J. O'ROURKE Distracting a politician from governing is like distracting a bear from eating your baby.
P. J. O'ROURKE Writing is turning one's worst moments into money.
J P DONLEAVY Inside every Sancho Panza there's a Don Quixote struggling to get out.
P. J. O'ROURKE Wealth is not a pizza, where if I have too many slices you have to eat the Domino's box.
P. J. O'ROURKE In Hong Kong there is agglomeration beyond my fondest imaginings. The Kowloon district claims a popu...
P. J. O'ROURKE There are plenty of problems in the world, and doubtless climate change - or whatever the currently ...
P. J. O'ROURKE Kuwait City is not gorgeous, actually, but it's got a kind of Epcot Center thing going for it. I...
P. J. O'ROURKE The importance of local governance may not be obvious to an America accustomed to treating city and ...
P. J. O'ROURKE Israel is slightly smaller than New Jersey. Moses in effect led the tribes of Israel out of the Dist...
P. J. O'ROURKE It could be that all awful dictators are frustrated artists - Mao with his poetry and Mussolini with...
P. J. O'ROURKE I'm too tough and sensitive to have to have some pubescent twerp with his mom's earring in h...
P. J. O'ROURKE Earnestness is stupidity sent to college.
P. J. O'ROURKE Even very young children need to be informed about dying. Explain the concept of death very carefull...
P. J. O'ROURKE I like to think of my behavior in the sixties as a learning experience. Then again, I like to think ...
P. J. O'ROURKE The purpose of a funeral service is to comfort the living. It is important at a funeral to display e...
P. J. O'ROURKE There's a whiff of the lynch mob or the lemming migration about any overlarge concentration of like-...
P. J. O'ROURKE With Epcot Center the Disney corporation has accomplished something I didn't think possible in today...
P. J. O'ROURKE When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are le...
P. J. O'ROURKE Very little is known of the Canadian country since it is rarely visited by anyone but the Queen and ...
P. J. O'ROURKE