The malady of civilized man is his knowledge of death. The good artist, like the wise man, addresses himself to life and… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Sex is a continuum. You go through different phases along life's way... and if you don't, you've been sort of cheated. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
We must declare ourselves, become known; allow the world to discover this subterranean life of ours which connects kings and farm boys,… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Since no one can ever know for certain whether or not his own view of life is the correct one, it is… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
If the splitter of hairs has a sharp enough knife, the fact of life itself can be chopped into nothing. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
The best novelist of my generation is an Italian living in Paris, still working and improving - Italo Calvino. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
I went to Europe to live in 1961. I'd never have written Julian if it hadn't been for the sequestered life that… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Life will be wonderful when men no longer fear dying. When the last superstitions are thrown out and we meet death with… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
A superficial education would be worse than none. But a full education would open every man's eyes to the nature of human… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Writing when you are already very old means you have lived through the endings of so many things, you are more aware… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Novels, except as aids to masturbation, play no part in contemporary life. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
“There are, then, three sorts of religious experiences. The ancient rites, which are essentially propitiatory. The mysteries, which purge the soul and… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Baum (Writer of THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ) was a true educator, and those who read his Oz books are often made… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
The true confessors have been aware that not only is life mostly failure, but that in one's failure or pettiness or wrongness… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
It is of no consequence to you what others think of you. What matters is what you think of them. That is… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Because there is no cosmic point to the life that each of us perceives on this distant bit of dust at galaxy's… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
“I have been reading Plotinus all evening. He has the power to sooth me; and I find his sadness curiously comforting. Even… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
I’m not sentimental about anything. Life flows by, and you flow with it or you don’t. Move on and move out. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
“As for the human case, the generation of men come and go and are in eternity no more than bacteria upon a… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
“To turn life into words is to make life yours to do with as you please, instead of the other way round” — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
My family helped start [this country], we've been in political life ... since the 1690s, and I have a very possessive sense… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Think of the earth as a living organism that is being attacked by billions of bacteria whose numbers double every forty years.… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Sex is. There is nothing more to be done about it. Sex builds no roads, writes no novels and sex certainly gives… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party...and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Many people in the United States happen to believe that United States policy is wrong in Vietnam and the Vietcong are correct in wanting… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
“It is curious how little interested we are in the sexual desires of those who do not attract us.” — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
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… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
The oligarchs think that the people are both dangerous and stupid. Their point is moot. But we do know that the oligarchs are a… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Rome ... at its most decadent, had never thought of hiring an actor to go through the motions of being an emperor while the… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
History is nothing but gossip about the past, with the hope that it might be true. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
The malady of civilized man is his knowledge of death. The good artist, like the wise man, addresses himself to life and invests with… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Sex is a continuum. You go through different phases along life's way... and if you don't, you've been sort of cheated. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image