You know, I've been around the ruling class all my life, and I've been quite aware of their total contempt for the people of the country. Gore Vidal More Quotes by Gore Vidal More Quotes From Gore Vidal We're the most captive nation of slaves that ever came along. The moral timidity of the average American is quite noticeable. Everybody's afraid to be thought in any way different from everyone else. Gore Vidal different average way Young people are more hopeful at a certain age than adults, but I suspect that's glandular. As for children, I keep as far from them as possible. I don't like the sight of them. The scale is all wrongs. The heads tend to be too big for the bodies, and the hands and feet are a disaster. They keep falling into things. The nakedness of their bad character! We adults have learned how to disguise our terrible character, but children, well, they are like grotesque drawings of us. They should be neither seen nor heard, and no one must make another one. Gore Vidal drinking children fall The American vice is explanation. Gore Vidal explanation vices Astronauts: rotarians in outer space. Gore Vidal astronaut astronomy space Since the individual's desire to dominate his environment is not a desirable trait in a society which every day grows more and more confining, the average man must take to daydreaming. Gore Vidal desire average men The period of Prohibition - called the noble experiment - brought on the greatest breakdown of law and order the United States has known until today. I think there is a lesson here. Do not regulate the private morals of people. Do not tell them what they can take or not take. Because if you do, they will become angry and antisocial and they will get what they want from criminals who are able to work in perfect freedom because they have paid off the police. Gore Vidal law order thinking Eisenhower's career demonstrated how it is possible to fool all the people all the time...'I may be stupid,' he once said at a press conference, 'but at least I'm sincere!' Actually, he was neither, but it suited his purpose to play the part of the bumbling man of good will who was 'not an expert in these matters' but somehow would do his best. Gore Vidal stupid play men If most men and women were forced to rely upon physical charm to attract lovers, their sexual lives would be not only meager but in a youth-worshiping country like America painfully brief. Gore Vidal rely-upon men country It is ironic that a nation that has never experienced a coup d'etat should be so obsessed with the idea of conspiracy. Gore Vidal ironic conspiracy ideas A current pejorative adjective is narcissistic. Generally, a narcissist is anyone better looking than you are, but lately the adective is often applied to those "liberals" who prefer to improve the lives of others rather than exploit them. Apparently, a concern for others is self-love at its least attractive, while greed is now a sign of the hightest altruism. But then to reverse, periodically, the meanings of words is a very small price to pay for our vast freedom not only to conform but to consume. Gore Vidal concern-for-others greed self To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil. Gore Vidal greed evil mind There is no such thing as a true account of anything. Gore Vidal accounts Love and hate are so confused in your savage minds and the vibrations of the one are so very like those of the other that I can't always distinguish. You see, we neither love nor hate in my world. We simply have hobbies. Gore Vidal confused hate love Write what you think, what you imagine, what you suspect! Gore Vidal imagine writing thinking You cannot get through the density of the propaganda with which the American people, through the dreaded media, have been filled and the horrible public educational system we have for the average person. It's just grotesque. Gore Vidal educational media average Realism has always been called cynicism. Gore Vidal realism cynicism When the white race broke out of Europe 500 years ago, it did many astounding things all over the globe. Inspired by a raging sky-god, the whites were able to pretend that their conquests were in order to bring the One God to everyone, particularly those with older and subtler religions. Gore Vidal race order years It is astonishing to think that millions of people in my time—now, too, I suppose—actually thought that at a given moment in history two human beings had evolved to a higher state than that of all the gods that ever were or ever will be. This is titanism, as the Greeks would say. This is madness. Gore Vidal two people thinking Which other major religion is based on the Godhead incarnate being whipped, tacked to a cross, stabbed? Only the Marquis de Sade could have made up a sicker religion. It's no wonder that those brought up in such a culture hate life and enjoy inflicting pain. All societies are sick but some are sicker than others. Christian societies are certainly the sickest. Gore Vidal pain hate christian I was brought up to believe that what is out-of-doors should stay there and not be encouraged in any way. Gore Vidal doors believe way
