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State of the Union: The Nation's Essays 1958-2008 QUOTES

State of the Union: The Nation's Essays 1958-2008 QUOTES

1 " As long as any group within the society deliberately maintains its identity it is, or should be, a fair target for satire—both for its own good and for the society’s. "

― Gore Vidal , State of the Union: The Nation's Essays 1958-2008

2 " After acquiring Texas, Polk deliberately started a war with Mexico because, as he later told the historian George Bancroft, we had to acquire California. Thanks to Polk, we did. "

― Gore Vidal , State of the Union: The Nation's Essays 1958-2008

3 " the Russian governors are terrified of ideas. If only they knew what our governors know—that in a massive egalitarian society no idea which runs counter to the prevailing superstitions can successfully penetrate the official carapace. "

― Gore Vidal , State of the Union: The Nation's Essays 1958-2008

4 " After politics, journalism has always been the preferred career of the ambitious but lazy second-rater. "

― Gore Vidal , State of the Union: The Nation's Essays 1958-2008

5 " The American passion for categorizing has now managed to create two non-existent categories—gay and straight. "

― Gore Vidal , State of the Union: The Nation's Essays 1958-2008

6 " Since the reading skills of the American people are the lowest in the First World, the general public is always easy prey to manipulation by television. "

― Gore Vidal , State of the Union: The Nation's Essays 1958-2008