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Gore Vidal Quotes - Page 2

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True wisdom is to know the extent of what you don't know quite as well as you know what you do know.

True wisdom is to know the extent of what you don't know quite as well as you know what you do know.

Wells, True Wisdom, Knows

Gore Vidal (1982). “Création: a novel”

The Puritans left England for America not because they couldn't be Puritans in their mother country, but because they were not allowed to force others to become Puritans; in the New World, of course, they could and did.

Mother, Country, America

Our form of democracy is bribery, on the highest scale.

Democracy, Politics, Form

FaceBook post by Gore Vidal from May 21, 2014

Every four years the naive half who vote are encouraged to believe that if we can elect a really nice man or woman President everything will be all right. But it won't be.

Nice, Believe, Men

Gore Vidal (2002). “The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000”, p.416, Vintage

Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.

Inspirational, Fashion, Hair

FaceBook post by Gore Vidal from Feb 28, 2011

There is no such thing as a homosexual or a heterosexual person. There are only homo- or heterosexual acts. Most people are a mixture of impulses if not practices.

Practice, People, Literature

Gore Vidal (1990). “At home: essays, 1982-1988”, Vintage

As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.

Communication, Cities, People

Gore Vidal (2004). “Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia”, p.52, CLAIRVIEW BOOKS

When anyone says to me, 'Can you keep a secret?' I say, 'Why should I, if you can't?'

Secret, Investing, Should

Democracy is something America has never really practiced. Because the Founding Fathers hated two things: monarchy and democracy. They wanted a republic, a replica of the Roman or Venetian republics. They didn't even like the etymology of the word "democracy."

Father, Two, America

"The End of Gore Vidal". Interview with Lila Azam Zanganeh, www.guernicamag.com. August 15, 2012.

Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.

Life, Running, Native American

FaceBook post by Gore Vidal from Nov 17, 2010

USA belongs to a handful of men who also control the media. Look at General Electric. It produces nuclear weapons for the Pentagon and also owns the NBC News cable channel, which is a very sophisticated censure apparatus, intrinsic to the system. It's genius. It's like an electronic cage around the nation which blocks information from getting through.

Block, Men, Nbc News

It makes no difference who you vote for - the two parties are really one party representing four percent of the people.

Party, Two, Differences

The word 'radical' derives from the Latin word for root. Therefore, if you want to get to the root of anything you must be radical. It is no accident that the word has now been totally demonized.

Latin, Roots, Democracy

Gore Vidal (2007). “Selected Essays”, Abacus Software

It is of no consequence to you what others think of you. What matters is what you think of them. That is how you live your life.

Thinking, What Matters, Live Your Life

The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return.

Government, Class, People

"Matters of Fact and Fiction: Essays 1973 - 1976". Book by Gore Vidal (p. 280), 1978.

Terrorism is a direct response to the crimes our government has committed against foreigners (besides which, the actual terrorists are within our own government)

Government, Liberty, Libertarian

But women are always attracted to power. I do not think there could ever be a conqueror so bloody that most women would not willingly lie with him in the hope of bearing a son who would be every bit as ferocious as the father.

Father, Lying, Son

The brain that doesn't feed itself, eats itself.

Writing, Brain

Of course, it is possible for any citizen with time to spare, and a canny eye, to work out what is actually going on, but for the many there is not time, and the network news is the only news even though it may not be news at all but only a series of flashing fictions.

Eye, Media, Work Out

Gore Vidal (1992). “The Decline and Fall of the American Empire”

Most lives are spent putting on and taking off masks.

Mask

Country is run by... financial powers & corporate interests [who] send their lawyers to Congress to make laws so that they don't have to pay taxes

Running, Country, Law

Since no one can ever know for certain whether or not his own view of life is the correct one, it is absolutely impossible for him to know if someone else's is the wrong one.

Views, Impossible, Life Is

Gore Vidal (1999). “The Essential Gore Vidal”, Random House Incorporated

They are longing for a war with Iran. Iran is no more a harm to us than was Iraq or Afghanistan. They invented an enemy, they tell lies, lies, lies. The New York Times goes along with their lies, lies, lies. And they don't stop. When the public that's lied to 30 times a day it's apt to believe the lies, is not it?

New York, War, Lying

At least when the Emperor Justinian, a sky-god man, decided to outlaw sodomy, he had to come up with a good practical reason, which he did. It is well known, Justinian declared, that buggery is a principal cause of earthquakes, and so must be prohibited. But our sky-godders, always eager to hate, still quote Leviticus, as if that looney text had anything useful to say about anything except, perhaps, the inadvisability of eating shellfish in the Jerusalem area.

Hate, Men, Sky

"America First? America Last? America at Last?". Lowell Lecture, Harvard University, April 20, 1992.

Never offend an enemy in a small way.

Enemy, Way

GORE VIDAL (1964). “JULIAN”

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