Government proposes, bureaucracy disposes. And the bureaucracy must dispose of government proposals by dumping them on us.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
Hubris is one of the great renewable resources.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Hubris refers to excessive pride or self-confidence, often leading to downfall.
The quote by P. J. O'Rourke suggests that hubris, or extreme arrogance, is not only a common human trait but also a recurring one that seems to regenerate over time. It highlights the idea that despite the consequences of excessive pride, people continually demonstrate this trait, making it a perpetual source of folly throughout history.
Themes
HubrisPrideArroganceRenewableResources
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about leadership failures, illustrating how pride can lead to a downfall.
More from P. J. O'Rourke
All quotes →Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
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Predicting innovation is something of a self-canceling exercise: the most probable innovations are probably the least innovative.
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I spend my days kneeling in the muck of language, feeling around for gooey verbs, nouns, and modifiers that I can squash together to make a blob of a sentence that bears some likeness to reason and sense.
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Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine.
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The idea of a news broadcast once was to find someone with information and broadcast it. The idea now is to find someone with ignorance and spread it around.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
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