To get people to do needed things is the perennial hard task of government, not to mention of religion and philosophy.
GORE VIDALEurope began as the relatively empty, uncivilized Wild West of Asia; then the Western Hemisphere became the Wild West of Europe. Now the sun has set in our West and risen once more in the East.
More Gore Vidal Quotes
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The unfed mind devours itself.
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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.
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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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The media can’t get anything straight.
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I’m exactly as I appear. There is no warm, lovable person inside. Beneath my cold exterior, once you break the ice, you find cold water.
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Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.
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It’s odd to meet a rather elderly man who says, ‘I’ve been reading you all my life.’ It makes you feel a slight chill.
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On 16 September 1985, when the Commerce Department announced that the United States had become a debtor nation, the American Empire died.
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In writing and politicking, it’s best not to think about it, just do it.
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Now you have people in Washington who have no interest in the country at all. They’re interested in their companies, their corporations grabbing Caspian oil.
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I am told the Cheney-Bush team dislikes their junta being compared to the Nazis. If they ceased behaving like Nazis, no comparison would come to mind.
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Democracy is supposed to give you the feeling of choice, like Painkiller X and Painkiller Y. But they’re both just aspirin.
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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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You cannot deprive somebody of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, because that is a right – constitutional right.
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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.
GORE VIDAL






