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Justice & Law Quote by Evel Knievel

"I really think we should pass a law in every state, I don't care whether it takes the independence away from an old person or not. You shouldn't be driving a car if you're over the age of 80. Maybe even less than that"

About this Quote

Coming from Evel Knievel, the patron saint of risk, this is a sneakily authoritarian line dressed up as common sense. The man who made a career out of treating bones like disposable props suddenly wants the government to rescue the public from danger by yanking keys out of seniors' hands. That whiplash is the point: it frames aging not as a personal stage but as a public hazard, a liability the state should manage.

The bluntness does two jobs. First, it signals impatience with the polite fiction that independence is always sacred. "I don't care" is a moral shortcut, bypassing the messy reality that driving is often the last thread connecting older people to work, groceries, dignity. Second, it smuggles in a broader cultural anxiety: America loves freedom until freedom looks like slow reflexes at a four-way stop. The quote turns a legitimate safety problem into a clean, punitive solution, because clean solutions feel like control.

There's also a celebrity-performer psychology at play. Knievel understood spectacle and consequence, and this reads like a performer riffing in absolutist terms to land a punchline that isn't really a joke. The subtext: we tolerate risk when it's chosen and entertaining, less so when it's ordinary and unpredictable. His suggestion isn't policy; it's a provocation that reveals how quickly "public safety" can become a permission slip for blunt age-based limits.

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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Knievel, Evel. (2026, January 14). I really think we should pass a law in every state, I don't care whether it takes the independence away from an old person or not. You shouldn't be driving a car if you're over the age of 80. Maybe even less than that. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-really-think-we-should-pass-a-law-in-every-142249/

Chicago Style
Knievel, Evel. "I really think we should pass a law in every state, I don't care whether it takes the independence away from an old person or not. You shouldn't be driving a car if you're over the age of 80. Maybe even less than that." FixQuotes. January 14, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-really-think-we-should-pass-a-law-in-every-142249/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I really think we should pass a law in every state, I don't care whether it takes the independence away from an old person or not. You shouldn't be driving a car if you're over the age of 80. Maybe even less than that." FixQuotes, 14 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-really-think-we-should-pass-a-law-in-every-142249/. Accessed 29 Mar. 2026.

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I do not care You should not drive a car if over 80
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About the Author

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Evel Knievel (October 17, 1938 - November 30, 2007) was a Entertainer from USA.

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