As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city… — 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… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
“One of the problems of a society as tightly controlled as ours is that we get so little information about what those… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
“The public is always relieved to find that once the chief officers of state are elected they do not sincerely want change.” — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
These are two opposing forces, and whenever I am in active politics, I stop writing. And when I'm writing, I don't politick. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
We should stop going around babbling about how we're the greatest democracy on earth, when we're not even a democracy. We are… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Politically, of course, it's to the Right, but then the whole country is to the Right. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
The hatred Americans have for their own government is pathological, if understandable. At one level it is simply thwarted greed: since our… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
It makes no difference who you vote for - the two parties are really one party representing four percent of the people. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Our rulers for more than half a century have made sure that we are never to be told the truth about anything… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
My father had a deep and lifelong contempt for politicians in general ("They tell lies," he used to say with wonder, "even… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
I like the distance that Europe gives me. Also if I stayed in America I'd be a full-time politician and have no… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he's been bought ten times over. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
You will be favorable to Burr, and so must fail, because the American reader cannot bear a surprise. He knows that this… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
In a society like ours, politics is improvisation. To the artful dodger rather than the true believer goes the prize. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
“It was of course Jefferson’s gift at one time or another to put with eloquence the “right” answer to every moral question.… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
You can't be both a writer and a politician, at least not a good writer. A writer must always tell the truth… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Yet in a society of conflicting interests the only democratic way in which matters can be improved is through politics, and politics… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Politics is made up of two words: "Poli," which is Greek for "many," and "tics," which are bloodsucking insects. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Our only political party has two right wings, one called Republican, the other Democratic. But Henry Adams figured all that out back… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Liberal comes from the Latin liberalis, which means pertaining to a free man. In politics, to be liberal is to want to… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
'Politics' is made up of two words, 'poli,' which is Greek for 'many,' and 'tics,' which are blood-sucking insects. — 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
