Gore Vidal's thoughts for today

We must declare ourselves, become known; allow the world to discover this subterranean life of ours which connects kings and farm boys, artists and clerks. Let them see that the important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.

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.

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.

Television is now so desperately hungry for material that they're scraping the top of the barrel.

The four most beautiful words in our common language: I told you so.

Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.

Our form of democracy is bribery, on the highest scale.

Fifty percent of people won't vote, and fifty percent don't read newspapers. I hope it's the same fifty percent.

The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent.

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

That loyal retainer of the Chase Manhattan Bank, the American President.

I cannot remember when I was not fascinated by Henry Adams.

When I say 'president,' I still mean Roosevelt - wisely, I think.

Overcrowding in the cities is producing a collective madness in which irrational violence flourishes because man needs more space in which to be than the modern city allows.

I'm all for bringing back the birch, but only between consenting adults.

A narcissist is someone better looking than you are.

Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith.

The United States is the only civilized country in the world to class its teachers at the bottom of the social scale.

Both Marx and Christ agree that in this life, a right action is the consideration for the welfare of others

Gore Vidal (1925-2012)