Quotes by Molly Ivins (1944-2007)

Being slightly paranoid is like being slightly pregnant - it tends to get worse.

It's hard to argue against cynics -- they always sound smarter than optimists because they have so much evidence on their side

I believe in practicing prudence at least once every two or three years.

What stuns me most about contemporary politics is not even that the system has been so badly corrupted by money. It is that so few people get the connection between their lives and what the bozos do in Washington and our state capitols… Politics is not a picture on a wall or a television sitcom that you can decide you don't much care for.

It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America.

You can't ignore politics, no matter how much you'd like to.

I believe that ignorance is the root of all evil. And that no one knows the truth.

There are two kinds of humor. One kind that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity -- like what Garrison Keillor does. The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule -- that's what I do. Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. I only aim at the powerful.  When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel -- it's vulgar.

"What you need is sustained outrage...there's far too much unthinking respect given to authority."

"I am not anti-gun. I'm pro-knife. Consider the merits of the knife. In the first place, you have to catch up with someone in order to stab him. A general substitution of knives for guns would promote physical fitness. We'd turn into a whole nation of great runners. Plus, knives don't ricochet. And people are seldom killed while cleaning their knives."