Quotessence
Home / Authors / Andy Rooney
Andy Rooney

Andy Rooney Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleIfsI've LearnedI Have LearnedLiteratureWantKnowsThinkingWorldShould

Famous Andy Rooney Quotes

“One question in my mind, which I hardly dare mention in public, is whether patriotism has, overall, been a force for good or evil in the world. Patriotism is rampant in war and there are some good things about it. Just as self-respect and pride bring out the best in an individual, pride in family, pride in teammates, pride in hometown bring out the best in groups of people. War brings out the kind of pride in country that encourages its citizens in the direction of excellence and it encourages them to be ready to die for it. At no time do people work so well together to achieve the same goal as they do in wartime. Maybe that's enough to make patriotism eligible to be considered a virtue. If only I could get out of my mind the most patriotic people who ever lived, the Nazi Germans.”

WarEvilVirtuePridePatriotismNazi
Book:My War
Create image

“There are only a few safe targets left, just a few groups of people you can say anything negative about without getting in trouble for it. I've made a list of safe targets and I probably ought to stick to those. Politicians, for instance. You can say anything you want about them, and it doesn't matter how unfair you are. People seem to like it.”

PeopleWantMadeMatterSeemsLeftTroubleGroupsOughtPoliticianSafeNegativeSticksListsInstanceTargetUnfairSay Anything
Author:Andy Rooney
Create image

“The one affectation I have forced on the publisher... are my apostrophe-free ellisions. Because I write my scripts to read myself, I dont spell 'don't' with an apostrophe. I spell it 'dont'. We all know the word and it seems foolish to put in an extraneous apostrophe. Punctuation marks are devices we use to make the meaning of sentences clear. There is nothing confusing about a word like 'dont' printed without an apostrophe to indicate an omitted letter.”

KnowsWritingUseSeemsClearLettersMarkScriptsSentencesFoolishDevicesSpellsPublishersConfusingPrintedPunctuationPunctuation Marks
Author:Andy Rooney
Create image

“I just sat there looking at television, sort of dumb and thought how horrible it was. I had -- the grand aspects of it did not occur to me -- I had no notion of this terrorist network that existed. I knew the were a lot of people in the world who didn't like us, but I had no idea that it was as well organized as it apparently is. That's one of the amazing facets of this terrible event: how well they did it. Incredible. The competence of these evil people.”

PeopleWorldWellsIdeasEvilEventsTelevisionTerribleAspectNotionIncrediblesTerroristHorribleDumbNo IdeaSatOrganizedCompetenceFacetsEvil PeopleTerrible Events
Author:Andy Rooney
Create image

“Republicans ... are conservatives who think it would be best if we faced the fact that people are no damned good. They think that if we admit that we have selfish, acquisitive natures and then set out to get all we can for ourselves by working hard for it, that things will be better for everyone. They are not insensitive to the poor, but tend to think the poor are impoverished because they won't work. They think there would be fewer of them to feel sorry for if the government did not encourage the proliferation of the least fit among us with welfare programs.”

PeopleIfsThinkingFeelsHardFactsGovernmentWould BePoorFitRepublicanProgramSorrySelfishWelfareFewerProliferationInsensitiveWelfare Programs
Author:Andy Rooney
Create image

“Where some people may see loving grandparents, I see a pair of feckless boobs who can't drive, take way too long to shop, and don't even have the most basic grasps on the new technology. As a staunch supporter of the principles of Darwinism, I think that advances in modern medicine are starting to overrule the survival of the fittest, and it's to our [youngers'] detriment.”

PeopleThinkingWayMayLongPrinciplesTechnologyModernSurvivalMedicineStartingShopsPairsSupporterGrandparentNew TechnologyDarwinismSurvival Of The FittestModern MedicineFeckless
Author:Andy Rooney
Create image

“If, on the other hand, happiness depends on a good breakfast, flowers in the yard, a drink or a nap, then we are more likely to live with quite a bit of happiness.”

IfsHandsHappinessBitsFlowerDependsDrinkHappyBreakfastYardsBeing HappyVery HappyTrue HappinessNapsLife HappinessJoy And HappinessJust Be HappyJoy HappinessLife And HappinessSelf HappinessKey To HappinessLive Life HappyOthers HappinessLive HappyThey Make Me HappySimple Happiness
Author:Andy Rooney
Create image

“I think a draft produces a better Army than the one we would have with all volunteers, because I think you get average Americans if you have a draft. And if it's an all-volunteer Army, you get people who join up because of some problem in their own lives. They don't have anything else to do, they don't have a job, or they can't find what they want to do, so they join the Army. And it doesn't produce the best Army.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWantProblemJobsProduceArmyAverageVolunteerJoining The Army
Author:Andy Rooney
Create image

“I often pass a farm with cows grazing in the field and I think to myself how terrible it is that human beings grow other animals just to kill them and eat them. Most of us think of vegetarians as nuts and I'm not a vegetarian but I wouldn't be surprised if we came to a time in 50 or 100 years when civilized people everywhere refused to eat animals.”

PeopleIfsThinkingYearsHumansGrowsHuman BeingsAnimalFieldsTerribleCivilizedVegetarianFarmsNutsCowsGrazing
Author:Andy Rooney
Create image

“In the United States alone, we spend seven times as much on war as on education. There's something wrong there. On this Memorial Day, we should certainly honor those who have died at war, but we should dedicate this day, not so much to their memory, but to the search for a way to end the idiocy of the wars that killed them.”

WayShouldWarEndsStatesMemoriesUnitedUnited StatesHonorDiedSevenThis DayMemorialMemorial DayIdiocyThose Who Have Died
Author:Andy Rooney
Create image