13 Gore Vidal Quotes on Society

Gore Vidal quotes on society

14. Religions are manipulated in order to serve those who govern society and not the other way around.

22. Class is the most difficult subject for American writers to deal with as it is the most difficult for the English to avoid.

24. Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.

32. It is notable how little empathy is cultivated or valued in our society. I put this down to our traditional racism and obsessive sectarianism. Even so, one would think that we would be encouraged to project ourselves into the character of someone of a different race or class, if only to be able to control him. But no effort is made.

33. By and large, serious fiction was the work of victims who portrayed victims for an audience of victims who, it was oddly assumed, would want to see their lives realistically portrayed.

39. Celebrities are invariably celebrity-mad, just as liars always believe liars.

42. Happily for the busy lunatics who rule over us, we are permanently the United States of Amnesia. We learn nothing because we remember nothing.

45. Envy is the central fact of American life.

46. It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.

51. We're supposed to procreate and society, god knows, is ferocious on the subject. Heterosexuality is considered such a great and natural good that you have to execute people and put them in prison if they don't practice this glorious act.

54. We must always remember that the police are recruited from the criminal classes.

56. God has been expelled. I think he knows when he's on a losing wicket.

78. 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.