Gore Vidal quotes

Gore Vidal was an American writer, essayist, and public intellectual, renowned for his sharp wit and provocative commentary. Best known for his novels, plays, and essays, he was also a prominent figure in political and cultural debates. He challenged conventional ideas and remains influential for his fearless criticism and distinct literary style. Here are 226 of his quotes:

It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.

Gore Vidal

I never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television.

Gore Vidal

Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.

Gore Vidal

The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return.

Gore Vidal

Never have children, only grandchildren.

Gore Vidal

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.

Gore Vidal

I'm all for bringing back the birch, but only between consenting adults.

Gore Vidal

Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either.

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

By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he's been bought ten times over.

Gore Vidal

A narcissist is someone better looking than you are.

Gore Vidal

There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.

Gore Vidal

The more money an American accumulates, the less interesting he becomes.

Gore Vidal

There is something about a bureaucrat that does not like a poem.

Gore Vidal

As the age of television progresses the Reagans will be the rule, not the exception. To be perfect for television is all a President has to be these days.

Gore Vidal

The theater needs continual reminders that there is nothing more debasing than the work of those who do well what is not worth doing at all.

Gore Vidal

The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent.

Gore Vidal

A good deed never goes unpunished.

Gore Vidal

Write something, even if it's just a suicide note.

Gore Vidal

I'm not a conspiracy theorist - I'm a conspiracy analyst.

Gore Vidal

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

Gore Vidal

You hear all this whining going on, 'Where are our great writers?' The thing I might feel doleful about is: Where are the readers?

Gore Vidal