My father had lifelong contempt for politicians.
GORE VIDALI’m a fervent foe of water pollution, whether it is our own Hudson River or Philadelphia’s tap water.
More Gore Vidal Quotes
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The United States was founded by the brightest people in the country – and we haven’t seen them since.
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I’m not a conspiracy theorist – I’m a conspiracy analyst.
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I never wanted to be a writer. I mean, that’s the last thing I wanted.
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For the record, I’m a Second World War veteran and served in the Pacific.
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On September 5, 1774, forty-five of the weightiest colonial men formed the First Continental Congress at Philadelphia.
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I never said I was gay, because I don’t think anyone is.
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It is true, as Sartre once wrote, referring to French Army atrocities in Algeria, that the real tragedy in our time is that any of us can be, interchangeably, victim or torturer.
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Litigation takes the place of sex at middle age.
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While campaigning, I got to know many high-school teachers, and let me say that the good ones are the unsung heroes of our society, and the bad ones are the gravediggers.
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Corporations must pay tax.
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Why not just eliminate the federal income tax?
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What other culture could have produced someone like Hemingway and not seen the joke?
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I am only at home in the present.
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You hear all this whining going on, ‘Where are our great writers?’ The thing I might feel doleful about is: Where are the readers?
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I am not, at heart, a playwright.
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Both Marx and Christ agree that in this life, a right action is consideration for the welfare of others.
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There is only one party in the United States: the Property party… and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat.
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Television is now so desperately hungry for material that they’re scraping the top of the barrel.
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Jews, blacks and homosexuals are despised by the Christian and Communist majorities of East and West. Also, as a result of the invention of Israel, Jews can now count on the hatred of the Islamic world.
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Until very recently, the artist was a magician who did his magic in public view but kept himself and his effects a matter of mystery.
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We’re not a democracy.
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History is nothing but gossip about the past, with the hope that it might be true.
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By the end of World War II, we were the most powerful and least damaged of the great nations. We also had most of the money. America’s hegemony lasted exactly five years.
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If you are a Representative and want to be a Senator, you must be careful not to do anything which might upset the various forces you need to harness to get elected.
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Think of the earth as a living organism that is being attacked by billions of bacteria whose numbers double every forty years. Either the host dies, or the virus dies, or both die.
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To a man, ornithologists are tall, slender, and bearded so that they can stand motionless for hours, imitating kindly trees, as they watch for birds.
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