“I do not admire 'the people,' as such. No one really does. Their folk wisdom is usually false, their instincts predatory. Even their sense of survival - so highly developed in the individual - goes berserk in the mass. A crowd is a fool.” PeopleDoeIndividualDemocracyFoolSurvivalMassInstinctFolksCrowdsAdmirePredatoryBerserk Author:Gore Vidal
“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.” PeopleMenMaySaidMatterPlayPurposeCareersStupidFoolPressesStupidityExpertsSincereConferencesGood WillPress Conferences Author:Gore Vidal
“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.” PeopleShouldWellsChildrenCharacterBodyHandsBigsAgeYoungCertainFallHeardFeetTerribleAdultsSightDrinkingDrawingDisasterScalesHopefulSuspectsDisguiseGrotesqueHands And FeetBad Character Author:Gore Vidal
“The United States was founded by the brightest people in the country — and we haven't seen them since.” PeopleCountryStatesUnitedUnited StatesHavensInvestingGore Book:Gore Vidal's State of the Union: Nation Essays 1958-2005 Source: Gore Vidal's State of the Union: Nation Essays 1958-2005
“In almost every case (where the United States has fought wars) our overwhelming commitment to freedom, democracy and human rights has required us to support those regimes that would deny freedom, democracy and human rights to their own people.” PeopleHumansWarStatesUnitedCasesUnited StatesSupportDemocracyRightsCommitmentHuman RightsDenyOverwhelmingRegimesDemocracy And Human Rights Author:Gore Vidal
“Every four years the naive half who vote are encouraged to believe that if we can elect a really nice man or woman President everything will be all right. But it won't be. Any individual who is able to raise $25 million to be considered presidential is not going to be much use to the people at large. He will represent oil, or aerospace, or banking, or whatever moneyed entities are paying for him. Certainly he will never represent the people of the country, and they know it. Hence, the sense of despair throughout the land as incomes fall, businesses fail and there is no redress.” PeopleIfsKnowsMenYearsBelieveCountryUseAbleFallIndividualPresidentHalfMillionsFourNiceFailingLandDespairVoteRaisesOilIncomePresidentialFour YearsEntityBankingNaiveReally NiceRedressNice ManAerospace Book:The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 Source: The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000
“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.” PeopleKnowsCountryClassContemptRuling Author:Gore Vidal
“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.” PeopleWantShouldStatesEnoughEducatePrivate Life Author:Gore Vidal
“The constitution has broken down. We have no enemies except the ones we select and direct towards the nearest nuclear bombs. They need an enemy to provoke, a diversion. This is the mentality of tenth-rate people who are in politics because corporate America likes them. They are malleable. They give them contracts to build missile shields that will never work. It's deeply corrupt.” PeopleNeedsGivingGovernmentAmericaEnemyBrokenDirectConstitutionRateNuclearLikesCorporateBombsWorking ItContractsMentalityProvokingShieldsSelectMissilesDiversionNuclear BombBroken DownCorporate America Author:Gore Vidal
“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.” PeoplePersonsHas BeensMediaFilledAverageEducationalHorriblePropagandaGrotesqueAverage PersonEducational SystemPublic EducationDensity Author:Gore Vidal
“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.” PeopleThinkingHumansTwoStatesMomentsGivenHuman BeingsMillionsHigherMadnessGreekMy TimeAstonishing Author:Gore Vidal
“I find in most novels no imagination at all. They seem to think the highest form of the novel is to write about marriage, because that's the most important thing there is for middle-class people.” PeopleThinkingWritingImportantSeemsFormImaginationClassNovelMiddleHighestImportant ThingsMiddle Class Author:Gore Vidal
