O

For some things, there is no forgiveness. Not ever.

J. O’Barr The Crow

A laugh is a terrible weapon.

Kate O’Brien

A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been the victim of a very old and terrible lie …

Tim O'Brien (b. 1946) American novelist, journalist, veteran The Things They Carried

Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough fo them. There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.

Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964) American writer

It is not the business of art to follow reality. Reality follows art. When we gaze at a sunset, we do not see it "as it is" -- as an amalgam of Copernicus's vision of the earth's revolution round the sun and Max Planck's quantum theory of light. We see it through the eyes of generations of painters and poets who have infused into the spectacle the lofty symbol of aspiration and resignation or the grandeur of celestial harmony.

Charlton Ogburn, Jr. (1911-1998) American writer This Star of England, Forward (1952)

If women didn’t exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning.

Aristotle Onassis (1906-1975)

Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I’m not there, I go to work.

Robert Orben (b 1927) American writer, editor

Sometimes I get the feeling the whole world is against me, but deep down I know that’s not true. Some of the smaller countries are neutral.

Robert Orben (b 1927) American writer, editor

The children of America have seen with their own eyes that liars can win and cheaters can prosper. They know that our nation will accept venal behavior and, in some cases, reward it with tremendous wealth and power. So why wouldn't they lie, cheat and steal?
Bill O'Reilly, The No-Spin Zone (October 2001). Introduction

The minister had not set out to be a traitor. He had merely put his ambitions before his integrity, and circumstances had done the rest.
Victor O’Reilly, Games of the Hangman

If at first you don’t succeed, well, so much for skydiving.

Victor O’Reilly, Games of the Hangman

It came to him that if you are the kind of person who turns over stones -- and most people learn not to early in life -- what comes crawling out can be disconcerting.
Victor O’Reilly, Games of the Hangman

People might die, but the world went on. One had to be philosophical. People killing each other was not globally threatening, like destroying the ozone layer. It was actually quite normal. But it was inconvenient for those involved.
Victor O’Reilly, Rules of the Hunt

You shut out the sadness and you did what had to be done, and only afterwards did you weep. That was the way of it. There was no other.
Victor O’Reilly, Rules of the Hunt

America wasn't founded so that we could all be better. America was founded so we could all be anything we damned well pleased.

P.J. O'Rourke (b. 1947) American humorist, editor

Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.

P.J. O'Rourke (b. 1947) American humorist, editor

There’s a part of the human psyche that’s never satisfied with the chunks of an Archduke at Sarajevo and has to have a World War I.

P.J. O'Rourke (b. 1947) American humorist, editor

One of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual responsibility is the difficulty in finding someone to blame your troubles on. And when you do find someone, it's remarkable how often their picture turns up on your driver's license.

P.J. O'Rourke (b. 1947) American humorist, editor

There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.

P.J. O'Rourke (b. 1947) American humorist, editor Address at the Cato Institute (1993)

And by the way, I’ve about had it with this ‘greatest generation’ malarkey. You people have one stock market crash in 1929, and it takes you a dozen years to go get a job. Then you wait until Germany and Japan have conquered half the world before it occurs to you to get involved in World War II. After that you get surprised by a million Red Chinese in Korea. Where do you put a million Red Chinese so they’ll be a surprise? You spend the entire 1950s watching Lawrence Welk and designing tail fins. You come up with the idea for Vietnam. Thanks. And you elect Richard Nixon. The hell with you.

P.J. O'Rourke (b. 1947) American humorist, editor

[on Clinton’s “winning” the impeachment battle] Let me put this in terms that a boy from Hope will understand. No matter what, Bill, your girlfriend’s ugly, your wife’s a bitch, and your dog can’t hunt.

P.J. O'Rourke (b. 1947) American humorist, editor

No one is fond of taking responsibility for his actions, but consider how much you’d have to hate free will to come up with a political platform that advocates killing unborn babies but not convicted murderers.

P.J. O'Rourke (b. 1947) American humorist, editor

Even very young children need to be informed about dying. Explain the concept of death very carefully to your child. This will make threatening him with it much more effective.

P.J. O'Rourke (b. 1947) American humorist, editor

Why is this soiled, crumpled, overdecorated piece of paper bearing a picture of a rather disreputable president worth fifty dollars, while this clean, soft, white, and cleverly folded piece of paper is worth so little that I just wiped my nose on it?

P.J. O'Rourke (b. 1947) American humorist, editor

On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good and not quite all the time.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]

Perhaps once in a hundred years a person may be ruined by excessive praise, but surely once every minute someone dies inside for lack of it.

Cecil G. Osborne

If God had a face…would you want to see, if seeing meant that you would have to believe…?

Joan Osborne, “What if God Was One of Us”

We are the music-makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams; Wandering by lone sea-breakers, and sitting by desolate streams; World losers, and world-forsakers, On whom the pale moon gleams: Yet we are the movers and the shakers of the world forever it seems.

Arthur O'Shaughnessy (1844–81) English poet, singer

When did I realise I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realised I was talking to myself.
Peter O’Toole, The Ruling Class

Love is much like a wild rose, beautiful and calm, but willing to draw blood in its defense.

Mark A. Overby (contemp.) American writer

We may look into a church, almost any church, and discover someone who, though he is offered a gospel of love, must subtly convert it into a gospel of hate before he can receive it. The gospel of love -- with its emphasis upon brotherhood, equality before God, the dignity of every human being, and man's social responsibility toward man -- does not satisfy the lack that he urgently feels. That calls for something altogether different, for an assurance that he is superior, that he is right where others are wrong -- a kind of cosmic teacher's pet.

Bonaro W. Overstreet (1902-1985) American poet, psychologist

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