quotations about oil
Officials at BP have filed for permits to drill for oil again in the Gulf of Mexico. They say the oil is easier to find than ever because its mostly on top of the water.
CONAN O'BRIEN
Conan, 2011
I trimm'd my lamp, consum'd the midnight oil.
WILLIAM SHENSTONE
Elegy XI
My formula for success? Rise early, work late, strike oil.
JEAN PAUL GETTY
As I See It
In Louisiana, BP claims that it's making progress with the leaking oil in the Gulf. They're working on a plan to heat the Gulf up to 600 degrees and use it to fry chicken.
JIMMY KIMMEL
Jimmy Kimmel Live!, 2010
To ask the question "What is oil?" is almost like asking "What is love?"
JOHN GUNTHER
Inside U.S.A.
The angry men know that this golden age (of fossil fuels) has gone; but they cannot find the words for the constraints they hate. Clutching their copies of Atlas Shrugged, they flail around, accusing those who would impede them of communism, fascism, religiosity, misanthropy, but knowing at heart that these restrictions are driven by something far more repulsive to the unrestrained man: the decencies we owe to other human beings.
GEORGE MONBIOT
Monbiot, December 14, 2009
By the fall of 1918, it was clear that a nation's prosperity, even its very survival, depended on securing a safe, abundant supply of cheap oil.
ALBERT MARRIN
Black Gold: The Story of Oil in Our Lives
Oil companies are nationalities. This plane oughta say EXXON on the side instead of U. S. Navy.
JAMES W. BLINN
The Aardvark Is Ready For War
If Europe's example is any guide, here are the two secrets of coping with expensive oil: own fuel-efficient cars, and don't drive them too much.
PAUL KRUGMAN
"Stranded in Suburbia", New York Times, May 19, 2008
Control over the production and distribution of oil is the decisive factor in defining who rules whom in the Middle East.
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
The Quotable Hitchens from Alcohol to Zionism
Oil creates the illusion of a completely changed life, life without work, life for free. Oil is a resource that anaesthetises thought, blurs vision, corrupts.
RYSZARD KAPUSCINSKI
Shah of Shahs
If you look at humanity's per-capita energy use today, it's as thought each human being has twenty-three servants for him or her, every hour of every day.
LEIF WENAR
Blood Oil
You know how you can tell if a gas station is price-gouging? If the sign says "Open".
JAY LENO
Tonight Show, 2007
Oil prices have fallen lately. We include this news for the benefit of gas stations, which otherwise wouldn't learn of it for six months.
WILLIAM TAMMEUS
The Globe and Mail, 1991
Nor watch the wasting of the midnight oil.
JOHN GAY
Fables
Pardon me, ye that give the midnight oil,
To learned cares, or philosophic toil.
WILLIAM COWPER
"Retirement"
The birthplace of the modern oil industry is commonly considered to be Titusville, Pennsylvania. There Edwin Drake drilled his first modern oil well in 1859. However, oil had been produced in Europe and Russia for several decades before. It was in the United States that the real oil rush was born, where it was distilled into kerosene to use in lighting. Oil was also used as a lubricant for machinery in the growing industrial manufacturing sector. Gasoline, as it happens, was an unwanted by-product of refining at the time due to its volatility.
RAULI PARANEN
The World After Cheap Oil
Now they're saying all this terrorist activity could lead to higher oil prices. When asked why, the oil companies said, "Cause everything leads to higher oil prices." In fact, the price of crude oil could hit $80 a barrel. That's not crude -- that's obscene.
JAY LENO
The Tonight Show, 2006
There is earth below your earth, a deep room where
gas and oil, rock and stone, circulate like slow blood
through a body.
MATHEW HENDERSON
The Lease
British Petroleum said today that if this spill gets worse, they may have to start drilling for water.
DAVID LETTERMAN
Late Night with David Letterman, 2010