black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

You cannot deprive somebody of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, because that is a right – constitutional right.

Gore Vidal

Temperamentally, I am suspicious of belonging to anything. When I ran for office, I debated seriously whether or not to run as an independent because I was not eager to be saddled with the Democratic Party, because any party label is committing.
GORE VIDAL

Commitment Democracy Government Independent Party Politics Serious
All in all, I would not have missed this century for the world.
GORE VIDAL

Missing Myself World
Why not just eliminate the federal income tax?
GORE VIDAL

Elimination Income Tax
The American high school graduate is two years behind his English, French or German counterpart; in Alabama, God knows how far behind.
GORE VIDAL

God Graduation Known Yourself
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
On 16 September 1985, when the Commerce Department announced that the United States had become a debtor nation, the American Empire died.
GORE VIDAL

Death Department Nation State
In the German concentration camps, Jews wore yellow stars while homosexuals wore pink lambdas.
GORE VIDAL

Camp Concentration Discrimination German Oppression
Ayn Rand is a rhetorician who writes novels I have never been able to read.
GORE VIDAL

Myself Novel Reading Writing
Write something, even if it’s just a suicide note.
GORE VIDAL

Note Suicide Writing
The media can’t get anything straight.
GORE VIDAL

Media Straight
My father had lifelong contempt for politicians.
GORE VIDAL

Father Life Myself Politics
I was raised in the Washington household of my grandfather Senator Thomas P. Gore of Oklahoma, and have known politicians intimately all my life.
GORE VIDAL

Childhood Home Life Myself Politician Raise
In the writing of novels, there is the problem of how to shape a narrative.
GORE VIDAL

Novel Problem Shape Writing
After adolescence, if one’s life is sufficiently interesting, the desire to tell oneself stories diminishes.
GORE VIDAL

Diminish Interesting Life Oneself Story
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
In essence, Clinton’s Anti-Terrorism Act would set up a national police force, over the long-dead bodies of the founders.
GORE VIDAL

Act Finding Force National Police

You cannot deprive somebody of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, because that is a right – constitutional right.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

You cannot deprive somebody of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, because that is a right – constitutional right.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Gore Vidal Quotes