QuoteProject
When it comes to cars, only two varieties of people are possible - cowards and fools.
Russell Baker
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote humorously suggests that those who are overly cautious or completely reckless in their views on cars represent the extremes of human behavior.

Russell Baker's quote implies that people tend to react to cars in one of two contradictory ways: either they are afraid of them, embodying caution and timidity, or they are foolishly reckless, choosing to disregard safety and responsibility. This dichotomy serves as a commentary on human nature and our relationship with risk, particularly in the context of automobiles, which can evoke both fear and excitement.

Themes

CarsHumorCautionRecklessnessHuman Nature

In practice

Example use cases

During a speech about risk-taking, one might reference this quote to illustrate extremes of caution and recklessness.

More from Russell Baker

So there he is at last. Man on the moon. The poor magnificent bungler! He can't even get to the office without undergoing the agonies of the damned, but give him a little metal, a few chemicals, some wire and twenty or thirty billion dollars and vroom! there he is, up on a rock a quarter of a million miles up in the sky.
Russell BakerRead
The worst thing about the miracle of modern communications is the Pavlovian pressure it places upon everyone to communicate whenever a bell rings.
Russell BakerRead
Voters inclined to loathe and fear elite Ivy League schools rarely make fine distinctions between Yale and Harvard. All they know is that both are full of rich, fancy, stuck-up and possibly dangerous intellectuals who never sit down to supper in their undershirt no matter how hot the weather gets.
Russell BakerRead
Rereading A.J. Liebling carries me happily back to an age when all good journalists knew they had plenty to be modest about, and were.
Russell BakerRead
Television was the most revolutionary event of the century. Its importance was in a class with the discovery of gunpowder and the invention of the printing press, which changed the human condition for centuries afterward.
Russell BakerRead
Objects can be classified scientifically into three major categories: those that don't work, those that break down and those that get lost.
Russell BakerRead

Similar quotes

I've never been asked to appear on 'I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!,' so I guess I mustn't be on the professional skids just yet.
Robin WilliamsRead
Why can't they have gay people in the army? Personally, I think they are just afraid of a thousand guys with M16s going, "Who'd you call a faggot?"
Jon StewartRead
The other night I ate at a real nice family restaurant. Every table had an argument going.
George CarlinRead
"Fussy eater" is a euphemism for "big pain in the ass."
George CarlinRead
How often we recall with regret that Napoleon once shot at a magazine editor and missed him and killed a publisher. But we remember with charity that his intentions were good.
Mark TwainRead
Twas Noah who first planted the vine_x000D_ _x000D_ And mended his morals by drinking its wine.
Benjamin FranklinRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.