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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| 75b2b48 | After acquiring Texas, Polk deliberately started a war with Mexico because, as he later told the historian George Bancroft, we had to acquire California. Thanks to Polk, we did. | Gore Vidal | ||
| d567999 | Marietta, I do not believe in ghosts, astrology, palmistry, graphology, John Cage, love or God. I do believe in the moment, in the pleasures of the flesh, of conversation, of art-at least for the few so minded. I believe . . . | Gore Vidal | ||
| 701ecbe | We do not want to old to be sharper than we. It is bad enough that they were there first, and got the best things. | age | Gore Vidal | |
| 5b21939 | Like the rest of us, Constantius was many men in the body of one. | Gore Vidal | ||
| 25fd523 | Even a child could see the division between what the Galileans [i.e., Christians] say they believe and what, in fact, they do believe, as demonstrated by their actions. A religion of brotherhood and mildness which daily murders those who disagree with its doctrines can only be thought hypocrite, or worse. | arianism athanasian brotherhood christian-hypocrisy christianity heresy heretics holy-war hypocrisy julian | Gore Vidal | |
| 1107d30 | But like so many others nowadays, poor Julian wanted to believe that man's life is profoundly more significant than it is. His sickness was the sickness of our age. We want so much not to be extinguished at the end that we will go to any length to make conjuror-tricks for one another simply to obscure the bitter, secret knowledge that it is our fate not to be. | afterlife death mystery mysticism priscus religion resurrection | Gore Vidal | |
| cf1362a | The failure of Hellenism has been, largely, a matter of organization. Rome never tried to impose any sort of worship upon the countries it conquered and civilized; in fact, quite the contrary, Rome was eclectic. All religions were given an equal opportunity and even Isis--after some resistance--was worshipped at Rome. As a result we have a hundred important gods and a dozen mysteries. Certain rites are--or were--supported by the state becau.. | 362 eclecticism ecumenism formalism hellenism julian mystery-religions paganism philosophy religion | Gore Vidal | |
| 623f36f | of all this world's creatures, the author is the vainest, | Gore Vidal | ||
| d6a34a6 | In the twentieth century, science has been everything and the arts almost nothing by comparison. As a result, many artists now pretend to be scientists. They try to imitate the strategies of science. Paintings that talk. Sculpture that swims. Books that turn to ash. New formulas just like the scientist. But that isn't science of course, nor is it art. Just the end of the road. | science | Gore Vidal | |
| 780008f | Wilson was very much school of Montaigne. Like Montaigne, he was not exactly misogynistic but he felt that the challenge of another male mind was the highest sort of human exchange while possession of a beautiful woman was also of intense importance to him. | misogyny | Gore Vidal | |
| 3168458 | Many years ago, there used to be something called 'conflict of interest.' No longer, I'm afraid. Today, we all bathe in the same river. | conflict-of-interest | Gore Vidal | |
| 081192e | Foreigners are mystified by the whole business while thoughtful Americans - there are several of us - are equally mystified that the ruling establishment of the country has proved to be so mindlessly vindictive that it is willing, to be blunt, to overthrow the lawful government of the United States - that is, a president elected in 1992 and reelected in 1995 by We the People, that sole source of all political legitimacy, which takes precede.. | politics | Gore Vidal | |
| 936f7a8 | A nation not of men but of laws, intoned John Adams as he, among other lawyers, launched what has easily become the most demented society ever consciously devised by intelligent men. We are now enslaves by laws. We are governed by lawyers. We create little but litigate much. Our monuments are the ever-expanding prisons, where millions languish for having committed victimless crimes or for simply not playing the game of plausible deniability.. | impeachment-of-bill-clinton usurpation-of-the-constitution | Gore Vidal | |
| 3ca93da | I said it. I like to quote myself. I am not modest. | Gore Vidal | ||
| bc81492 | the Russian governors are terrified of ideas. If only they knew what our governors know--that in a massive egalitarian society no idea which runs counter to the prevailing superstitions can successfully penetrate the official carapace. | Gore Vidal | ||
| 6cc87f5 | Do not regulate the private lives of people because, if you do, they will become angry and antisocial, and they will get what they want from criminals who work in perfect freedom because they know how to pay off the police. | Gore Vidal | ||
| 629c84e | Apathy is just a lack of energy, which to me, is just the literal definition of decadence. So the energy gives out in a society - that is decadence. | Gore Vidal | ||
| 67b225f | is not all philosophy but preparation for a serene dying? | aging death libanius mortality philosophy philosophy-of-death | Gore Vidal | |
| cba4b13 | Long before the dread monotheists got their hands on history's neck, we had been taught how to handle feuds by none other than the god Apollo as dramatized by Aeschylus in Eumenides (a polite Greek term for the Furies who keep us daily company on CNN). Orestes, for the sin of matricide, cannot rid himself of the Furies who hound him wherever he goes. He appeals to the god Apollo who tells him to go to the UN--also known as the citizens' ass.. | Gore Vidal | ||
| 7f19155 | When Kennedy got his highest rating after the debacle of the Bay of Pigs, he observed, characteristically, "It would seem that the worse you fuck up in this job the more popular you get." | Gore Vidal | ||
| 365bf35 | AFTER HAMILTON'S DEATH, I remained at Richmond Hill for ten days. I confess that I was not prepared for the response to our interview. Apparently no one had ever fought a duel in the whole history of the United States until Aaron Burr invented this diabolic game in order to murder the greatest American that ever lived (after George Washington, of course). Over night the arrogant, mob-detesting Hamilton was metamorphosed into a Christ-like f.. | Gore Vidal | ||
| 733866a | Contrary to accepted legend, the Philadelphians did not at all mind the presence of the British army in their city; in fact, many of them hoped that Washington would soon be caught and hanged, putting an end to those disruptions and discomforts which had been set in motion by the ambitions of a number of greedy and vain lawyers shrewdly able to use as cover for their private designs Jefferson's high-minded platitudes and cloudy political th.. | Gore Vidal | ||
| 7577130 | I'm not joking when I refer to our country as the United States of Amnesia, although I was corrected recently by Studs Terkel out of Chicago. And he said, "Gore, it's not the United States of Amnesia; it's the United States of Alzheimer's." I stand corrected." | Real Network | ||
| 52fb84e | Democritus is studying philosophy here at Athens. This means that he delights in quarrels. | Gore Vidal | ||
| bdeb95b | I would not be surprised if elephants are more intelligent than human beings. After all, their heads are larger than ours, and the fact that they do not speak might well be an indication of superiority. | Gore Vidal | ||
| fb8217b | Journalism and popular fiction have merged, and the graphic and the plausible have become an end in themselves. The contemporary public plainly prefers mirrors to windows. | popular-fiction | Gore Vidal | |
| 63dd62c | Forget the Bush family, they are the most negligible family in the country. They are unintelligent, they are reasonably decorative, they are obedient to the great economic powers. Nixon said something interesting to Murray Kempton about Bush senior when he became President. Murray and Nixon used to have lunch, and when Murray said, "Well, what is this Bush like?" Nixon said, "Oh, nothing, nothing there, just a lightweight. He's the sort of .. | Gore Vidal | ||
| a52f00d | helped the boy-governor eat the remains of the fruit, they discussed how it was that newspapers sometimes knew all sorts of secrets that they ought not to have known--and certainly ought not to publish, when the rest of the time they had no interest in facts at all. "Whatever sounds as if it might suit the prejudices of the reader, that is what will be published," said Chase." | Gore Vidal | ||
| 9668dbe | In passing, I continually marvel at how different today's lawyers and politicians are from us of the first generation. We did not possess a single orator to compare with the present crop. Jefferson and Madison were inaudible. Monroe was dull. Hamilton rambled and I was far too dry (and brief) for the popular taste. Fisher Ames was the nearest thing we had to an orator (I never heard Patrick Henry). Today, however, practically every public m.. | Gore Vidal | ||
| fb00449 | It is my task always to know, particularly when I don't. | Gore Vidal | ||
| 1afc4c3 | They say that to know oneself is to know all there is that is human. But of course no one can ever know himself. Nothing human is fully calculable; even to ourselves we are strange. | know-thyself knowledge-of-self self-knowledge | Gore Vidal | |
| fa6bf97 | Beloved, white racial grief erupts when you fear losing your dominance. You get mighty angry at our demand that you live up to the sense of responsibility you say others should have--especially black folk and people of color. You often tell us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, to make no excuses for our failures, and to instead admit our flaws and better ourselves. And yet so many of you, beloved, are obstinate to a fault, intransigen.. | Michael Eric Dyson | ||
| aade5ad | In Broadway, I suddenly found myself face to face with William de la Touche Clancey. "Well!" A long drawn-out syllable, in which fear and condescension were unpleasantly mingled. "What is the young Old Patroon about to turn his hand to next?" "The Vauxhall Gardens, I should think." My dislike of Clancey is almost physical. Yet I stare at him with fascination; note that his protuberant eyes are yellowish; that he scratches himself compulsive.. | Gore Vidal | ||
| 54f349c | It's a great scandal of the CEOs, who are simply bandits. They go into a company that had a rich base, grab everything they can for themselves, stock options, huge salaries, fire as many people as possible. If we ever have an oldfashioned revolution in the United States, it will be made by well-educated blue-collar workers who have lost their jobs. | Real Network | ||
| d955afe | You know what Mr. Bates called me?" Seward shook his head with wonder. "An unprincipled liar. And here I am one of the most heavily principled men in politics." Lincoln chuckled. In every way, making allowances for regional differences, Seward's humor was not unlike his own. "And since you're a smart man, Governor, you never actually lie. Smart men never have to." | Gore Vidal | ||
| 3f59c56 | You can't break eggs without making an omelet," said Butler sententiously." | Gore Vidal | ||
| 5864099 | I told her you were probably here'. 'Thanks,' Tony said. 'Did I mention she thinks her brother's murder is my fault? | Val McDermid | ||
| d13ce01 | Attractive smile, Carol added to her list of particulars as she shook the hand. | Val McDermid | ||
| 98f209d | The derivation of just power from the consent of the governed depends upon the integrity of the reasoning process through which that consent is given. If the reasoning process is corrupted by money and deception, then the consent of the governed is based on false premises, and any power thus derived is inherently counterfeit and unjust. If the consent of the governed is extorted through the manipulation of mass fears, or embezzled with clai.. | Al Gore | ||
| f5866cd | The feelings of powerlessness are an adaptive function. The child adopts behavior that sets himself or herself up for more of the same. He or she becomes antisocial and stops evoking a feeling of warmth in other people, thus reinforcing the notion of powerlessness. Children then stay on the same pathway. These courses are not set in stone, but the longer a child stays on one course, the harder it is to move on to another. By studying the be.. | Al Gore | ||
| 06453ac | An exciting follow-up to this event was the many ups and downs when the most developed country in the world made such a mess of its own presidential election that it took several weeks for the Supreme Court to decide 5-4 that the candidate with the most votes had lost. With this, George W. Bush became the president of the United States, while Al Gore was reduced to an environmental agitator whom not even the anarchists in Stockholm paid muc.. | Jonas Jonasson | ||
| 8c5e81e | The expectation of the Clinton campaign and the mainstream media was inconsistent with the prior trend, over fifty years, of African Americans giving 11 to 16 percent of their vote to Republican and Independent candidates in presidential elections. Among recent presidents, only Lyndon Johnson in 1964, Al Gore in 2000, and Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 have received 90 percent or more of the black vote. Hillary Clinton received 88 percent of.. | Roger Stone | ||
| 6b449da | This administration has not been content simply to reduce the Congress to subservience. By closely guarding information about their own behavior, they are dismantling a fundamental element of our system of checks and balances. A government for the people and by the people should be transparent to the people. Yet the Bush administration seems to prefer making policy in secret, based on information that is not available to the public and in a.. | Al Gore | ||
| f4e11b3 | After basic needs are met, higher incomes produce gains in happiness only up to a point, beyond which further increases in consumption do not enhance a sense of well-being. The cumulative impact of surging per capita consumption, rapid population growth, human dominance of every ecological system, and the forcing of pervasive biological changes worldwide has created the very real possibility, according to twenty-two prominent biologists and.. | Al Gore |