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Meaning
This reads as a jokingly cynical view of hospitality, where the party is not really about the guest’s pleasure. It points to the social contract of entertaining, with all its vanity, obligation, and performance, and it turns the idea of generosity into a comic exaggeration. It lands in a room full of guests when someone is mocking the polite fiction that every host is being purely selfless.
When It Was Said
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Who It Was Said To
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Historical Context
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Source
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Original Language & Translation
Originally said in English.
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About P. J. O'Rourke
American author, journalist, and political satirist
P. J. O'Rourke was an American author, journalist, and political satirist. He wrote on politics and on subjects as varied as cars, etiquette, and economics, and 481 quotes are listed on the site. He published twenty-two books. Among them, Parliament of Whores and Give War a Chance both reached No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list. His work is associated with sharp political satire and wide-ranging social commentary.
More from P. J. O'Rourke (481 quotes) →Other sayings from P. J. O'Rourke
- “I like fiction and the kind of history that gives the grace and flavor of fiction to the past. No bloviation…”P. J. O'Rourke
- “Liberals consider people to be nuisances.”P. J. O'Rourke
- “Until I carried my wife off to New Hampshire, she defined wilderness as the Bronx.”P. J. O'Rourke
- “We need a government, alas, because of the nature of humans.”P. J. O'Rourke
Purpose: more sayings
- “We should be blessings to others as believers”Sunday Adelaja
- “As a subconscious attempt to add meaning or purpose to their life: The unemployed pray for a job”the retired pray for grandchildren.
- “when you do more than you learn, you leave a distinctive notable footprints on earth”Ernest Agyemang Yeboah