Gore Vidal Quotes - Page 2

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• Our only political party has two right wings, one called Republican, the other Democratic. But Henry Adams figured all that out back in the 1890s. "We have a single system," he wrote, and "in that system the only question is the price at which the proletariat is to be bought and sold, the bread and circuses."

  Gore Vidal

  Party, Wings, Two

  Gore Vidal (2004). “Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia”, p.50, CLAIRVIEW BOOKS

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

  Gore Vidal

  Inspirational, Fashion, Hair

  FaceBook post by Gore Vidal from Feb 28, 2011

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

  Gore Vidal

  Secret, Investing, Should

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• 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.

  Gore Vidal

  Communication, Cities, People

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

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• 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.

  Gore Vidal

  Latin, Roots, Democracy

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

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• The great unmentionable evil at the center of our culture is monotheism. From a barbaric Bronze Age text known as the Old Testament, three anti-human religions have evolved -- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These are sky-god religions. They are, literally, patriarchal -- God is the Omnipotent Father -- hence the loathing of women for 2,000 years in those countries afflicted by the sky-god and his earthly male delegates.

  Gore Vidal

  God, Country, Father

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

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• 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.

  Gore Vidal

  Country, People, Evil

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• As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action.

  Gore Vidal

  Election Time, Action, Language

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

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• 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.

  Gore Vidal

  Block, Men, Nbc News

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• 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.

  Gore Vidal

  Mother, Country, America

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• 

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

  Gore Vidal

  People, Political, Voting

  FaceBook post by Gore Vidal from Jul 26, 2011

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

  Gore Vidal

  Democracy, Politics, Form

  FaceBook post by Gore Vidal from May 21, 2014

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• 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.

  Gore Vidal

  Educational, Race, People

  "At Home: Essays 1982-1988". Book by Gore Vidal (Appendix), 1988.

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• The people are not stupid, but they are totally misinformed.

  Gore Vidal

  Stupid, People, Not Stupid

  "Gore Vidal on the Media and the American People". Interview with David Barsamian, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. August 1, 2012.

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

  Gore Vidal

  Government, Liberty, Libertarian

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• 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

  Gore Vidal

  Running, Country, Law

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• 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.

  Gore Vidal

  Jobs, United States, Ridiculous

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

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• 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.

  Gore Vidal

  Latin, Mean, Men

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

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• One of the most fascinating aspects of politician-watching is trying to determine to what extent any politician believes what he says.

  Gore Vidal

  Believe, Trying, Politician

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

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• Which other major religion is based on the Godhead incarnate being whipped, tacked to a cross, stabbed? Only the Marquis de Sade could have made up a sicker religion. It's no wonder that those brought up in such a culture hate life and enjoy inflicting pain. All societies are sick but some are sicker than others. Christian societies are certainly the sickest.

  Gore Vidal

  Christian, Pain, Hate

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• 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?

  Gore Vidal

  New York, War, Lying

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

  Gore Vidal

  Life, Running, Native American

  FaceBook post by Gore Vidal from Nov 17, 2010

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• 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.

  Gore Vidal

  Country, Nice, Fall

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

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• 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."

  Gore Vidal

  Father, Two, America

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

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• 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.

  Gore Vidal

  Clever, Thinking, Years

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