“We’re told cars are dangerous. It’s safer to drive through South Central Los Angeles than to walk there. We’re told cars are wasteful. Wasteful of what? Oil did a lot of good sitting in the ground for millions of years. We’re told cars should be replaced with mass transportation. But it’s hard to reach the drive-through window at McDonald’s from a speeding train. And we’re told cars cause pollution. A hundred years ago city streets were ankle deep in horse excrement. What kind of pollution do you want? Would you rather die of cancer at eighty or typhoid fever at nine?”

— P. J. O'Rourke

Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut (1996)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "We’re told cars are dangerous. It’s safer to drive through South Central Los Angeles than to walk there. We’re told car…" by P. J. O'Rourke?

P. J. O'Rourke 185

American journalist 1947

Related quotes

“My wife told me the car wasn't running well. There was water in the carburetor. I asked where the car was, and she told me it was in the lake.”

Henny Youngman (1906–1998) American comedian

"The Haunted Smile: The Story of Jewish Comedians in America" (2001)

“If we’re being told to do stupid or cruel things, then it is morally correct to disobey.”

Martin Firrell (1963) British artist and activist

Quoted in the documentary Art in a Word by Vera Baghiroli, qoob tv (22 July 2008).

“Told you. Everything sounds better in the car wash.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

“A flock of sheep was moving slowly down a country lane which was bounded by high banks. A motorist in a hurry came up behind the flock and urged the shepherd to move his sheep to the side so that the car could drive through. The shepherd refused since he could not be sure of keeping all the sheep out of the way of the car in such a narrow lane. Instead he reversed the situation. He told the car to stop and then he quietly turned the flock round and drove it back past the stationary car.”

Edward de Bono (1933) Maltese physician

Source: Lateral Thinking : Creativity Step by Step (1970), p. 100; Cited in Virginia K. Baillie et al. (1989) Effective Nursing Leadership: A Practical Guide. p. 244.