Religions are manipulated in order to serve those who govern society and not the other way around. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Nonprofit status is what created the Bible Belt. The tax code brought religion back to this country. — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
It is the spirit of the age to believe that any fact, no matter how suspect, is superior to any imaginative exercise,… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
The idea of a good society is something you do not need a religion and eternal punishment to buttress; you need a… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Religions sprang up among men to deal with the sometimes terrifying aspects of existence, to make sense out of the senseless, to… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Once people get hung up on theology, they've lost sanity forever. More people have been killed in the name of Jesus Christ… — 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… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Only a country that is based upon an extremely primitive religion, which is Christianity, I am a devoted enemy of monotheism in… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
The Puritans left England for America not because they couldn't be Puritans in their mother country, but because they were not allowed… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
The hatred Americans have for their own government is pathological ... at one level it is simply thwarted greed: since our religion… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
When the white race broke out of Europe 500 years ago, it did many astounding things all over the globe. Inspired by… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
“Even a child could see the division between what the Galileans [i.e., Christians] say they believe and what, in fact, they do… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
The ideal to which John Adams subscribed-that we would be a nation of laws, not of men-was quickly subverted when the churches… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
I regard monotheism as the greatest disaster ever to befall the human race. I see no good in Judaism, Christianity, or Islam… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Maybe there is no good God. But there is definitely a devil, and his predominant passion is the religion of Protestant fundamentalists.… — Gore Vidal Copy Share Image
Which other major religion is based on the Godhead incarnate being whipped, tacked to a cross, stabbed? Only the Marquis de Sade… — 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
In the First Amendment to the Constitution, the Founders made it clear that this was not to be a sky-god nation with… — 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