Authors:

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Gore Vidal Quotes - Page 3

All Quotes Advertising Age Alcohol Altruism Army Art Atheism Atheist Belief Business Character Children Choices Conspiracy Constitution Country Critics Culture Cynicism Democracy Dying Earth Energy Envy Evidence Evil Failing Genius Giving Gossip Greed Hate Home House Inspirational Islam Language Latin Liberty Literature Love Lying Memories Metaphor Pain Past Pleasure Politics Prejudice Prohibition Purpose Reading Reality Religion Running Sarcasm Stupidity Talent Truman War Winning Worship Writing Youth

Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society.... To justify and extol human greed

Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society.... To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.

Philosophy, Evil, Perfect

FaceBook post by Gore Vidal from Dec 18, 2011

A narcissist is someone better looking than you are.

Sarcastic, Sarcasm, Cynicism

FaceBook post by Gore Vidal from Dec 08, 2011

You hear all this whining going on, "Where are our great writers?" The thing I might feel doleful about is: Where are the readers?

Investing, Might, Whining

"Gore Vidal: What I've Learned". Interview with Mike Sager, www.esquire.com. August 1, 2012.

There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party … and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat.

Party, Wings, Two

"Gore Vidal obituary" by Jay Parini, www.theguardian.com. August 1, 2012.

My father had a deep and lifelong contempt for politicians in general ("They tell lies," he used to say with wonder, "even when they don't have to").

Father, Lying, Wonder

FaceBook post by Gore Vidal from Dec 03, 2014

It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.

Failure, Envy, Political

Quoted in Newport (R.I.) Daily News, 3 Nov. 1978

How to get people to vote against their interests and to really think against their interests is very clever. It's the cleverest ruling class that I have ever come across in history. It's been two hundred years at it. It's superb.

Clever, Thinking, Years

There is something about the state putting the power to bully into the hands of subnormal, sadistic apes that makes my blood boil.

Blood, Hands, Bully

FaceBook post by Gore Vidal from Dec 28, 2016

What is in question is a kind of book reviewing which seems to be more and more popular: the loose putting down of opinions as though they were facts, and the treating of facts as though they were opinions.

Book, Literature, Facts

"Life Lessons of Wisdom & Motivation - Volume IV: Insightful, Enlightened and Inspirational quotations and proverbs" by M. I. Sek, Providential Press, (p. 37), February 2014.

Presidents have absolutely gone against the will of Congress. Congress hasn't declared a war since December 7, 1941, and yet we've been at war ever since with somebody or other in order to justify the war machine. Now we have alienated almost the entire earth

War, Order, President

I'd say that Holland, Sweden, and Denmark are all better countries politically than the United States. The average person is far better off in one of those countries than he is in the United States and poverty of the sort that we have is absolutely unknown in Northern Europe.

Country, Average, Europe

Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

The same people own the media that own the White House that own the Congress that own the oil fields. They all work together to give a false view of the world to the American people.

Media, Oil, White

The problem with most Americans is that they don't like any question that takes more than ten seconds to answer.

Answers, Problem, Seconds

Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.

Issues, Political, Historical

FaceBook post by Gore Vidal from May 03, 2011

Private lives should be no business of the State. The State is bad enough as it is. It cannot educate or medicate or feed the people; it cannot do anything but kill the people. No State like that do we want prying into our private lives.

People, Want, Enough

"The Fantastic Man". Interview with Gert Jonkers. Butt magazine, No. 20, www.buttmagazine.com. July 01, 2007.

If you're a critic of the rulers of the United States, you are either demonized, or you are trivialized by the press, and they do a very good job of making you into a non-person or a ridiculous person.

Jobs, United States, Ridiculous

"Fresh Air Remembers Writer And Critic Gore Vidal". www.npr.org. August 2, 2012.

Liberal comes from the Latin liberalis, which means pertaining to a free man. In politics, to be liberal is to want to extend democracy through change and reform. One can see why that word had to be erased from our political lexicon.

Latin, Mean, Men

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

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. Any individual who is able to raise $25 million to be considered presidential is not going to be much use to the people at large. He will represent oil, or aerospace, or banking, or whatever moneyed entities are paying for him. Certainly he will never represent the people of the country, and they know it. Hence, the sense of despair throughout the land as incomes fall, businesses fail and there is no redress.

Country, Nice, Fall

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

Maybe there is no good God. But there is definitely a devil, and his predominant passion is the religion of Protestant fundamentalists. I believe my country is beginning to resemble a theocracy. Using television, the evangelists raise appalling amounts of money which they then invest in the election of mentally disabled obscurantists.

Country, Believe, Passion

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

Religions are manipulated in order to serve those who govern society and not the other way around.

Order, Way

Gore Vidal (1982). “The second American revolution and other essays (1976-1982)”, Random House Inc

Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.

Life, Friendship, Success

Quoted in Sunday Times Magazine, 16 Sept. 1973

That peculiarly American religion, President-worship.

President, Worship

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

I am an obsessive rewriter, doing one draft and then another and another, usually five. In a way, I have nothing to say, but a great deal to add.

Add, Way, Deals

The American press exists for one purpose only, and that is to convince Americans that they are living in the greatest and most envied country in the history of the world. The Press tells the American people how awful every other country is and how wonderful the United States is and how evil communism is and how happy they should be to have freedom to buy seven different sorts of detergent.

Country, People, Evil

We were to be forever at war with somebody. We were going to fight communism everywhere on earth even if it didn't threaten us. It was a holy war, just as we've made one on terrorism and Islam, equally stupid and equally irrelevant.

War, Stupid, Fighting

Source: www.counterpunch.org

You May Also Like: