Gore Vidal Quotes

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

Time, Words, Vote

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

Giving, Knowing, Style

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.
Gore Vidal

Government, Nothing, Genius

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

Politics, American, President

The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent.
Gore Vidal

Country, Opinion, Less

A good deed never goes unpunished.
Gore Vidal

Good, Goes, Deed

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

Politics, Great, Democracy

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

Politics, Same, American

Democracy is supposed to give you the feeling of choice, like Painkiller X and Painkiller Y. But they're both just aspirin.
Gore Vidal

Feeling, Democracy, Give

By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he's been bought ten times over.
Gore Vidal

Time, Times, Material

A narcissist is someone better looking than you are.
Gore Vidal

Someone, Looking, Narcissist

Fifty percent of people won't vote, and fifty percent don't read newspapers. I hope it's the same fifty percent.
Gore Vidal

Hope, Same, Vote

I never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television.
Gore Vidal

Sex, Chance, Miss

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

Friend, Whenever, Dies

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

Democracy, Highest, Bribery

Andy Warhol is the only genius I've ever known with an I.Q. of 60.
Gore Vidal

Genius, Known, Andy

It is the spirit of the age to believe that any fact, no matter how suspect, is superior to any imaginative exercise, no matter how true.
Gore Vidal

Age, True, Matter

We must declare ourselves, become known; allow the world to discover this subterranean life of ours which connects kings and farm boys, artists and clerks. Let them see that the important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
Gore Vidal

Life, Love, Important

Never have children, only grandchildren.
Gore Vidal

All in all, I would not have missed this century for the world.
Gore Vidal

Century, Missed

The four most beautiful words in our common language: I told you so.
Gore Vidal

Beautiful, Words, Language

It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
Gore Vidal

Enough, Others, Succeed

All children alarm their parents, if only because you are forever expecting to encounter yourself.
Gore Vidal

Yourself, Children, Parents

In writing and politicking, it's best not to think about it, just do it.
Gore Vidal

Write something, even if it's just a suicide note.
Gore Vidal

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Biography

Nationality: American

Born: October 3, 1925

Died: July 31, 2012

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