Search quotes

Link	Quote	Tags	Author
e91fa7e	How marvelous books are, crossing worlds and centuries, defeating ignorance and, finally, cruel time itself.		Gore Vidal
d11e607	Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.	politics hope american-ts educated-voters political-education vote elections americans	Gore Vidal
4b893ea	Actually, there is no such thing as a homosexual person, any more than there is such a thing as a heterosexual person. The words are adjectives describing sexual acts, not people. The sexual acts are entirely normal; if they were not, no one would perform them.		Gore Vidal
15cd497	The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.	emotion love inspirational	Gore Vidal
a33331a	Little Bush says we are at war, but we are not at war because to be at war Congress has to vote for it. He says we are at war on terror,		Gore Vidal
0c98b51	Professor] Frank recalled my idle remark some years ago: 'Never pass up the opportunity to have sex or appear on television.' Advice I would never give today in the age of AIDS and its television equivalent Fox News.		Gore Vidal
43a501b	I have always regarded as a stroke of good fortune that I was not born or brought up in a small American town; they may be the backbone of the nation, but they are also the backbone of ignorance, bigotry, and boredom, all in vast quantities.	murica society-thinking americans ignorance	Gore Vidal
f7ab9d2	Write what you know will always be excellent advice for those who ought not to write at all. Write what you think, what you imagine, what you suspect!		Gore Vidal
4492263	To a born-again atheist like myself, it is clear that each of us has multiple selves, talents, perceptions. But to the Roman Catholic, unity is all.	religion born-again atheist	Gore Vidal
7f308f9	a writer must always tell the truth (unless he's a journalist)		Gore Vidal
543d177	History is idle gossip about a happening whose truth is lost the instant it has taken place.	history truth 363 priscus gossip	Gore Vidal
b4a3462	Traitors who prevail are patriots; usurpers who succeed are divine emperors.		Gore Vidal
baaba2e	We affect one another quite enough merely by existing. Whenever the stars cross, or is it comets? fragments pass briefly from one orbit to another. On rare occasions there is total collision, but most often the two simply continue without incident, neither losing more than a particle to the other, in passing.	solitude relationships lonliness	Gore Vidal
32967bb	If one starts with the anatomical difference, which even a patriarchal Viennese novelist was able to see was destiny, then one begins to understand why men and women don't get on very well within marriage, or indeed in any exclusive sort of long-range sexual relationship.		Gore Vidal
2b24d9c	The malady of civilized man is his knowledge of death. The good artist, like the wise man, addresses himself to life and invests with his private vision the deeds and thoughts of men. The creation of a work of art, like an act of love, is our one small		Gore Vidal
4b81246	Never offend an enemy in a small way.		Gore Vidal
ef381bb	Ideally, of course, a relationship is best, but then how many people are capable of deep feeling? Practically none.		Gore Vidal
3fbd7b0	Nothing human is finally calculable; even to ourselves we are strange.		Gore Vidal
8f3dd9f	There is something about the state putting the power to bully into the hands of subnormal, sadistic apes that makes my blood boil.	politics society	Gore Vidal
1266c2c	Life will be wonderful when men no longer fear dying. When the last superstitions are thrown out and we meet death with the same equanimity as life. No longer will children's minds be twisted by evil gods whose fantastic origin is in those barbaric tribes who feared death and lightning, who feared life. That's it: life is the villain to to those who preach reward in death, through grace and eternal bliss, or through dark revenge.	life gore-vidal messiah	Gore Vidal
c274d40	How hungrily we read about ourselves!		Gore Vidal
acf5c8d	Of course his dust would be absorbed in other living things and to that degree at least he would exist again, though it was plain enough that the specific combination which was he would never exist again.	death nothingness	Gore Vidal
ac57607	Although Americans justify their self-interest in moral terms, their true interest is never itself moral.	usa	Gore Vidal
2b539a5	For the average American freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.		Gore Vidal
932e6db	We are given our place in time as we are given our eyes: weak, strong, clear, squinting, the thing is not ours to choose. Well, this has been a squinting, walleyed time to be born in.		Gore Vidal
0065d00	I regard monotheism as the greatest disaster ever to befall the human race. I see no good in Judaism, Christianity, or Islam -- good people, yes, but any religion based on a single, well, frenzied and virulent god, is not as useful to the human race as, say, Confucianism, which is not a religion but an ethical and educational system.	humanity ethical-system virulent-god educational-system confucianism useful monotheism judaism disaster harm islam	Gore Vidal
13c245c	A current pejorative adjective is narcissistic. Generally, a narcissist is anyone better looking than you are, but lately the adective is often applied to those "liberals" who prefer to improve the lives of others rather than exploit them. Apparently, a concern for others is self-love at its least attractive, while greed is now a sign of the hightest altruism. But then to reverse, periodically, the meanings of words is a very small price to..	narcissism	Gore Vidal
07cb1ab	This separation was absolute in our original Republic. But the sky-godders do not give up easily. In the 1950s they actually got the phrase In God We Trust onto the currency, in direct violation of the First Amendment.	religious-nuts unconstitutional republic separation-of-church-and-state	Gore Vidal
6c80276	Eventually all things are known. And few matter.	politics privacy	Gore Vidal
f4b276e	With modern technology it is the easiest of tasks for a media, guided by a narrow group of political manipulators, to speak constantly of democracy and freedom while urging regime changes everywhere on earth but at home. A curious condition of a republic based roughly on	freedom education false-reality public-schools political-parties democrats republicans government power consumerism	Gore Vidal
9fa01fa	Heroes must see to their own fame. No one else will.	self-promotion	Gore Vidal
3479ff2	The malice of a true Christian attempting to destroy an opponent is something unique in the world. No other religion ever considered it necessary to destroy others because they did not share the same beliefs. At worst, another man's belief might inspire amusement or contempt--the Egyptians and their animal gods, for instance. Yet those who worshipped the Bull did not try to murder those who worshipped the Snake, or to convert them by force ..	worship christianity evils-of-hatred holy-war priscus heresy hypocrisy	Gore Vidal
62e1645	I have been reading Plotinus all evening. He has the power to sooth me; and I find his sadness curiously comforting. Even when he writes: "Life here with the things of earth is a sinking, a defeat, a failure of the wing." The wing has indeed failed. One sinks. Defeat is certain. Even as I write these lines, the lamp wick sputters to an end, and the pool of light in which I sit contracts. Soon the room will be dark. One has always feared tha..		Gore Vidal
8d705d1	Americans tend to play different roles, hoping that somehow they'll stumble on the right one.		Gore Vidal
41e2859	There are, then, three sorts of religious experiences. The ancient rites, which are essentially propitiatory. The mysteries, which purge the soul and allow us to glimpse eternity. And philosophy, which attempts to define not only the material world but to suggest practical ways to the good life, as well as attempting to synthesize (as Iamblichos does so beautifully) all true religion in a single comprehensive system.		Gore Vidal
4037743	The rhetoric of hate is often most effective when couched in the idiom of love.		Gore Vidal
48d7299	The planet Venus, a circle of silver in a green sky, pierced the edge of the evening while the wintry woods darkened about me and in the stillness the regular sound of my footsteps striking the pavement was like a the rhythmic beating of a giant stone heart.		Gore Vidal
644fe9a	Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players. ... I have 10 or so, and that's a lot. As you get older, you become more skillful at casting them.		Gore Vidal
13eb06e	No one can ever love us quite so much as we love ourselves.	self-loving	Gore Vidal
f749916	On the throne of the world, any delusion can become fact.	bullshit-and-politics truthiness power-corrupts bullshit delusion propaganda	Gore Vidal
8944bec	the American reader cannot bear a surprise. He knows that this is the greatest country on earth...and evidence to the contrary is not admissible. That means no inconvenient facts, no new information. If you really want the reader's attention, you must flatter him. Make his prejudices your own. Tell him things he already knows. He will love your soundness.		Gore Vidal
e8def50	Let the dust take me when the adventure's done and I shall make the dust glitter for all eternity with my marvelous fury.		Gore Vidal
f648849	I say his version because there is no such thing as a true account of anything. Each sees the world from his own vantage point. Needless to say, a throne is not the best place from which to view anything except the backs of prostrate men.		Gore Vidal
3967775	Nothing that ever was changes. Yet nothing that is can ever be the same as what went before.		Gore Vidal

How marvelous books are, crossing worlds and centuries, defeating ignorance and, finally, cruel time itself.

Gore Vidal

d11e607

Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.

politics hope american-ts educated-voters political-education vote elections americans

Gore Vidal

4b893ea

Actually, there is no such thing as a homosexual person, any more than there is such a thing as a heterosexual person. The words are adjectives describing sexual acts, not people. The sexual acts are entirely normal; if they were not, no one would perform them.

Gore Vidal

15cd497

The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.

emotion love inspirational

Gore Vidal

a33331a

Little Bush says we are at war, but we are not at war because to be at war Congress has to vote for it. He says we are at war on terror,

Gore Vidal

0c98b51

Professor] Frank recalled my idle remark some years ago: 'Never pass up the opportunity to have sex or appear on television.' Advice I would never give today in the age of AIDS and its television equivalent Fox News.

Gore Vidal

43a501b

I have always regarded as a stroke of good fortune that I was not born or brought up in a small American town; they may be the backbone of the nation, but they are also the backbone of ignorance, bigotry, and boredom, all in vast quantities.

murica society-thinking americans ignorance

Gore Vidal

f7ab9d2

Write what you know will always be excellent advice for those who ought not to write at all. Write what you think, what you imagine, what you suspect!

Gore Vidal

4492263

To a born-again atheist like myself, it is clear that each of us has multiple selves, talents, perceptions. But to the Roman Catholic, unity is all.

religion born-again atheist

Gore Vidal

7f308f9

a writer must always tell the truth (unless he's a journalist)

Gore Vidal

543d177

History is idle gossip about a happening whose truth is lost the instant it has taken place.

history truth 363 priscus gossip

Gore Vidal

b4a3462

Traitors who prevail are patriots; usurpers who succeed are divine emperors.

Gore Vidal

baaba2e

We affect one another quite enough merely by existing. Whenever the stars cross, or is it comets? fragments pass briefly from one orbit to another. On rare occasions there is total collision, but most often the two simply continue without incident, neither losing more than a particle to the other, in passing.

solitude relationships lonliness

Gore Vidal

32967bb

If one starts with the anatomical difference, which even a patriarchal Viennese novelist was able to see was destiny, then one begins to understand why men and women don't get on very well within marriage, or indeed in any exclusive sort of long-range sexual relationship.

Gore Vidal

2b24d9c

The malady of civilized man is his knowledge of death. The good artist, like the wise man, addresses himself to life and invests with his private vision the deeds and thoughts of men. The creation of a work of art, like an act of love, is our one small

Gore Vidal

4b81246

Never offend an enemy in a small way.

Gore Vidal

ef381bb

Ideally, of course, a relationship is best, but then how many people are capable of deep feeling? Practically none.

Gore Vidal

3fbd7b0

Nothing human is finally calculable; even to ourselves we are strange.

Gore Vidal

8f3dd9f

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

politics society

Gore Vidal

1266c2c

Life will be wonderful when men no longer fear dying. When the last superstitions are thrown out and we meet death with the same equanimity as life. No longer will children's minds be twisted by evil gods whose fantastic origin is in those barbaric tribes who feared death and lightning, who feared life. That's it: life is the villain to to those who preach reward in death, through grace and eternal bliss, or through dark revenge.

life gore-vidal messiah

Gore Vidal

c274d40

How hungrily we read about ourselves!

Gore Vidal

acf5c8d

Of course his dust would be absorbed in other living things and to that degree at least he would exist again, though it was plain enough that the specific combination which was he would never exist again.

death nothingness

Gore Vidal

ac57607

Although Americans justify their self-interest in moral terms, their true interest is never itself moral.

usa

Gore Vidal

2b539a5

For the average American freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.

Gore Vidal

932e6db

We are given our place in time as we are given our eyes: weak, strong, clear, squinting, the thing is not ours to choose. Well, this has been a squinting, walleyed time to be born in.

Gore Vidal

0065d00

I regard monotheism as the greatest disaster ever to befall the human race. I see no good in Judaism, Christianity, or Islam -- good people, yes, but any religion based on a single, well, frenzied and virulent god, is not as useful to the human race as, say, Confucianism, which is not a religion but an ethical and educational system.

humanity ethical-system virulent-god educational-system confucianism useful monotheism judaism disaster harm islam

Gore Vidal

13c245c

A current pejorative adjective is narcissistic. Generally, a narcissist is anyone better looking than you are, but lately the adective is often applied to those "liberals" who prefer to improve the lives of others rather than exploit them. Apparently, a concern for others is self-love at its least attractive, while greed is now a sign of the hightest altruism. But then to reverse, periodically, the meanings of words is a very small price to..

narcissism

Gore Vidal

07cb1ab

This separation was absolute in our original Republic. But the sky-godders do not give up easily. In the 1950s they actually got the phrase In God We Trust onto the currency, in direct violation of the First Amendment.

religious-nuts unconstitutional republic separation-of-church-and-state

Gore Vidal

6c80276

Eventually all things are known. And few matter.

politics privacy

Gore Vidal

f4b276e

With modern technology it is the easiest of tasks for a media, guided by a narrow group of political manipulators, to speak constantly of democracy and freedom while urging regime changes everywhere on earth but at home. A curious condition of a republic based roughly on

freedom education false-reality public-schools political-parties democrats republicans government power consumerism

Gore Vidal

9fa01fa

Heroes must see to their own fame. No one else will.

self-promotion

Gore Vidal

3479ff2

The malice of a true Christian attempting to destroy an opponent is something unique in the world. No other religion ever considered it necessary to destroy others because they did not share the same beliefs. At worst, another man's belief might inspire amusement or contempt--the Egyptians and their animal gods, for instance. Yet those who worshipped the Bull did not try to murder those who worshipped the Snake, or to convert them by force ..

worship christianity evils-of-hatred holy-war priscus heresy hypocrisy

Gore Vidal

62e1645

I have been reading Plotinus all evening. He has the power to sooth me; and I find his sadness curiously comforting. Even when he writes: "Life here with the things of earth is a sinking, a defeat, a failure of the wing." The wing has indeed failed. One sinks. Defeat is certain. Even as I write these lines, the lamp wick sputters to an end, and the pool of light in which I sit contracts. Soon the room will be dark. One has always feared tha..

Gore Vidal

8d705d1

Americans tend to play different roles, hoping that somehow they'll stumble on the right one.

Gore Vidal

41e2859

There are, then, three sorts of religious experiences. The ancient rites, which are essentially propitiatory. The mysteries, which purge the soul and allow us to glimpse eternity. And philosophy, which attempts to define not only the material world but to suggest practical ways to the good life, as well as attempting to synthesize (as Iamblichos does so beautifully) all true religion in a single comprehensive system.

Gore Vidal

4037743

The rhetoric of hate is often most effective when couched in the idiom of love.

Gore Vidal

48d7299

The planet Venus, a circle of silver in a green sky, pierced the edge of the evening while the wintry woods darkened about me and in the stillness the regular sound of my footsteps striking the pavement was like a the rhythmic beating of a giant stone heart.

Gore Vidal

644fe9a

Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players. ... I have 10 or so, and that's a lot. As you get older, you become more skillful at casting them.

Gore Vidal

13eb06e

No one can ever love us quite so much as we love ourselves.

self-loving

Gore Vidal

f749916

On the throne of the world, any delusion can become fact.

bullshit-and-politics truthiness power-corrupts bullshit delusion propaganda

Gore Vidal

8944bec

the American reader cannot bear a surprise. He knows that this is the greatest country on earth...and evidence to the contrary is not admissible. That means no inconvenient facts, no new information. If you really want the reader's attention, you must flatter him. Make his prejudices your own. Tell him things he already knows. He will love your soundness.

Gore Vidal

e8def50

Let the dust take me when the adventure's done and I shall make the dust glitter for all eternity with my marvelous fury.

Gore Vidal

f648849

I say his version because there is no such thing as a true account of anything. Each sees the world from his own vantage point. Needless to say, a throne is not the best place from which to view anything except the backs of prostrate men.

Gore Vidal

3967775

Nothing that ever was changes. Yet nothing that is can ever be the same as what went before.

Gore Vidal