black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

The United States was founded by the brightest people in the country – and we haven’t seen them since.

Gore Vidal

As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.
GORE VIDAL

Election Illumination Language Liberal Society Vote
As for civil liberties, any one who is not vigilant may one day find himself living, if not in a police state, at least in a police city.
GORE VIDAL

Civil Finding Liberty Live Police
I’m all for bringing back the birch, but only between consenting adults.
GORE VIDAL

Adult Consent Myself
Americans, in general, are ignorant, bigoted, and deeply unhappy with their declining incomes.
GORE VIDAL

Decline Ignorance Income Sadness
I know a lot of the Annapolis breed.
GORE VIDAL

Known Myself
Baseball is the favorite American sport because it’s so slow. Any idiot can follow it. And just about any idiot can play it.
GORE VIDAL

Baseball Play Slow Sports
I can’t name three first-rate literary critics in the United States. I’m told there are a few hidden away at universities, but they don’t print them in ‘The New York Times.’
GORE VIDAL

Criticism Literature Myself Name University
As a schoolboy, I read most of Carl Sandburg’s six-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln.
GORE VIDAL

Myself Reading
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.
GORE VIDAL

Bird Man Stand Time
American history has fallen more and more into the hands of academics.
GORE VIDAL

Academics Fall Hands History
The more money an American accumulates, the less interesting he becomes.
GORE VIDAL

Himself Interesting Money
I can understand companionship.
GORE VIDAL

Companionship Understand
In the writing of novels, there is the problem of how to shape a narrative.
GORE VIDAL

Novel Problem Shape Writing
Between fourteen and nineteen, I must have begun and abandoned six novels.
GORE VIDAL

Age Beginning Myself
When I say ‘president,’ I still mean Roosevelt – wisely, I think.
GORE VIDAL

Myself President Thinking
A narcissist is someone better looking than you are.
GORE VIDAL

Better Narcissism Yourself

The United States was founded by the brightest people in the country – and we haven’t seen them since.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

The United States was founded by the brightest people in the country – and we haven’t seen them since.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Gore Vidal Quotes