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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

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Gore Vidal
Age: 86 †
Born: 1925
Born: October 3
Died: 2012
Died: July 31
Actor
Essayist
Journalist
Literary Critic
Non-Fiction Writer
Novelist
Opinion Journalist
Playwright
Politician
Prosaist
West Point
New York
Eugene Luther Gore Vidal
Gor Vidal
Cameron Kay
Eugene Luther Vidal
Edgar Box
Katherine Everard
Eugene Vidal
Action
City
Societies
Decadent
Political
Grow
Disguise
Solemnly
Used
Cities
Propaganda
Euphemism
Time
Grows
Destroying
Illuminate
People
Politics
Interests
Liberate
Interest
Election
Correctness
Words
Communication
Confuse
Language
Vote
Gore

More quotes by Gore Vidal

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Writing of history is our only heuristic principle. The Germans have a word for it, einfühlen. It is the ability to experience the past in the present and to recreate it. In my books, I have tried to recreate it in the most natural way possible: History must be integrated into the story without the weight of premonition.
Gore Vidal
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Never have children, only grandchildren.
Gore Vidal
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To bring into the world an unwanted human being is as antisocial an act as murder.
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I was never my own type so I completely missed my beauty all through my youth.
Gore Vidal
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First coffee, then a bowel movement. Then the Muse joins me.
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Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.
Gore Vidal
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The Gores, I think, are a bit brighter than the Bushes, historically speaking.
Gore Vidal
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To have an interest in both sexes is equally normal. Whether it's practiced or not is something else. Some do. Some don't.
Gore Vidal
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World events are the work of individuals whose motives are often frivolous, even casual.
Gore Vidal
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I might become an ascetic, live in India. A little rice is about the best I can do now.
Gore Vidal
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Democracy is something America has never really practiced. Because the Founding Fathers hated two things: monarchy and democracy. They wanted a republic, a replica of the Roman or Venetian republics. They didn't even like the etymology of the word democracy.
Gore Vidal
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All in all, I would not have missed this century for the world.
Gore Vidal
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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
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Poor John Simon - what a nightmare, to wake up in the morning and realize that you are John Simon.
Gore Vidal
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The whole point to American journalism is what ought to be true is true.
Gore Vidal
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Gentlemen are not supposed to tell the truth about their sex lives, nor are ladies, for that matter. Of course Clinton lied - as would anybody in his position.
Gore Vidal
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Precocious talents mature slowly if at all.
Gore Vidal
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All Americans born between 1890 and 1945 wanted to be movie stars.
Gore Vidal
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The unfed mind devours itself.
Gore Vidal
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I think we're going to have to accept the fact the U.S. is off the world map. We are not a great player any longer. And when we come home - as we will have to do because we've run out of money - we will discover that Argentine debts means Argentine politics. And on that note, you can wake up in the middle of the night.
Gore Vidal