No reform ever came from the bottom, and it was always people who understood how the ruling class worked who turned out to be the reformers. Gore Vidal More Quotes by Gore Vidal More Quotes From Gore Vidal If [drugs] didn't exist, our government would have to invent them, the better to enact laws aimed at keeping the citizens "sinless and obedient." Gore Vidal drug government law Apparently, 'conspiracy stuff' is now shorthand for unspeakable truth. Gore Vidal shorthand conspiracy stuff Nothing human is finally calculable; even to ourselves we are strange. Gore Vidal strange humans Ultimately, totalitarianism is the only sort of politics that can truly serve the sky-god's purpose. Any movement of a liberal nature endangers his authority and that of his delegates on earth. One God, one King, one Pope, one master in the factory, one father-leader in the family at home. Gore Vidal atheist kings father We affect one another quite enough merely by existing. Whenever the stars cross, or is it comets? fragments pass briefly from one orbit to another. On rare occasions there is total collision, but most often the two simply continue without incident, neither losing more than a particle to the other, in passing. Gore Vidal orbit stars two The more money an American accumulates, the less interesting he becomes. Gore Vidal more-money money interesting History is nothing but gossip about the past, with the hope that it might be true. Gore Vidal gossip might past Congress no longer declares war or makes budgets. So that's the end of the constitution as a working machine. Gore Vidal constitution machines war Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Gore Vidal company born writing I never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television. Gore Vidal powerful witty sex 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 numbers years thinking How marvelous books are, crossing worlds and centuries, defeating ignorance and, finally, cruel time itself. Gore Vidal ignorance book world I’m not sentimental about anything. Life flows by, and you flow with it or you don’t. Move on and move out. Gore Vidal dying death moving I write in the morning at a table, longhand on yellow legal pads, just like Nixon, when I’m doing fiction. Gore Vidal writing yellow morning The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself. Gore Vidal lgbt-pride gay important 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. Gore Vidal cold ice water 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 progress perfect birthday First coffee, then a bowel movement. Then the Muse joins me. Gore Vidal movement coffee firsts Because there is no cosmic point to the life that each of us perceives on this distant bit of dust at galaxy's edge, all the more reason for us to maintain in proper balance what we have here. Because there is nothing else. Nothing. This is it. And quite enough, all in all. Gore Vidal balance dust reason Private lives should be no business of the State. The State is bad enough as it is. It cannot educate or medicate or feed the people; it cannot do anything but kill the people. No State like that do we want prying into our private lives. Gore Vidal enough want people
