Politics Quotes by Gore Vidal

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

— Gore Vidal

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

— Gore Vidal

“Eventually all things are known. And few matter.”

— Gore Vidal

Ronald Reagan: a triumph of the embalmer's art.

— Gore Vidal

We are the United States of Amnesia, we learn nothing because we remember nothing.

— Gore Vidal

Friends, there is no Left in American politics.

— Gore Vidal

What is a political party but a conspiracy?

— Gore Vidal

My father had a deep and lifelong contempt for politicians in general ("They tell lies," he used to say with wonder, "even…

— Gore Vidal

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

— Gore Vidal

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

— Gore Vidal

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

— Gore Vidal

“The public is always relieved to find that once the chief officers of state are elected they do not sincerely want change.”

— Gore Vidal

Politically, of course, it's to the Right, but then the whole country is to the Right.

— Gore Vidal

In a society like ours, politics is improvisation. To the artful dodger rather than the true believer goes the prize.

— Gore Vidal

I wanted to be a politician and a movie star. But I was born a writer. If you're born that, you can't…

— Gore Vidal

Ultimately, totalitarianism is the only sort of politics that can truly serve the sky-god's purpose. Any movement of a liberal nature endangers…

— Gore Vidal

Liberal comes from the Latin liberalis, which means pertaining to a free man. In politics, to be liberal is to want to…

— Gore Vidal

The hatred Americans have for their own government is pathological, if understandable. At one level it is simply thwarted greed: since our…

— Gore Vidal

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

Our rulers for more than half a century have made sure that we are never to be told the truth about anything…

— Gore Vidal

Americans have no idea of the extent of their government's mischief... the number of military strikes we have made unprovoked, against other…

— Gore Vidal

As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city…

— Gore Vidal

Yet in a society of conflicting interests the only democratic way in which matters can be improved is through politics, and politics…

— Gore Vidal

“It is ironic-rouse the limpest adjective-that a government as spontaneously tyrannous and callous as ours should, over the years, have come yo…

— Gore Vidal

It is difficult to find a reputable American historian who will acknowledge the crude fact that a Franklin Roosevelt, say, wanted to…

— Gore Vidal

“One of the problems of a society as tightly controlled as ours is that we get so little information about what those…

— Gore Vidal

This might explain why Obama gave billions to Wall Street crooks, and dragged the Iraq and Afghan wars on and on. Happily…

— Gore Vidal

You will be favorable to Burr, and so must fail, because the American reader cannot bear a surprise. He knows that this…

— Gore Vidal

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

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

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

— Gore Vidal

If you want to rise in politics in the United States, there is one subject you must stay away from, and that…

— Gore Vidal

If [drugs] didn't exist, our government would have to invent them, the better to enact laws aimed at keeping the citizens "sinless…

— Gore Vidal

'Politics' is made up of two words, 'poli,' which is Greek for 'many,' and 'tics,' which are blood-sucking insects.

— Gore Vidal

Rome ... at its most decadent, had never thought of hiring an actor to go through the motions of being an emperor…

— Gore Vidal

Politics is made up of two words: "Poli," which is Greek for "many," and "tics," which are bloodsucking insects.

— Gore Vidal

It makes no difference who you vote for - the two parties are really one party representing four percent of the people.

— Gore Vidal

Our only political party has two right wings, one called Republican, the other Democratic. But Henry Adams figured all that out back…

— Gore Vidal

I think we're going to have to accept the fact the U.S. is off the world map. We are not a great…

— Gore Vidal

The hatred Americans have for their own government is pathological ... at one level it is simply thwarted greed: since our religion…

— Gore Vidal