Gore Vidal Quotes

Christianity's all sects are found only in India.

The religion that has transformed Western civilization for two millennia is a blank slate for liberals. Their closest reference point is conservative Christians, meaning people you're not supposed to hire. And these are the people who carp about George Bush's alleged lack of intellectual curiosity.

I want to hit him, step away and watch him hurt. I want his heart.

People, man, they love hurting people. It's not even fair.

If anyone desires a religion other than Islam, never will it be accepted of him

Believe no one unless he follows your religion

Extremism is born when the social-political situation creates pressure which threatens the community. However, there are religious justifications for political pressure. People legitimize the use of (Koranic) verses that Jews and Christians will always be the enemy of Islam. People use such verses without looking at the historical context of the verses. They always use it as if the enmity with Jews and Christian is permanent.

The Islamic world perceive Western nations as defending Judeo-Christian tradition against the spread of radical militant Islam.

In Iran they believe that girls who are virgins go to heaven. So when a young woman is in prison to be executed, they rape her before they kill her.

The children of Adam, created of the self-same clay, are members of one body. When one member suffers, all members suffer, likewise. O Thou, who art indifferent to the suffering of the fellow, thou art unworthy to be called a man. بنى آدم اعضای يك پیکرند که در آفرينش ز یک گوهرند چو عضوى به درد آورد روزگار دگر عضوها را نماند قرار تو کز محنت دیگران بی غمی نشاید که نامت نهند آدمی

The Arabs have persecuted us severely, and passed baneful and discriminatory legislation against us… Never did a nation molest, degrade, debase, and hate us as much as they..

Protestantism, Judaism and Confucianism have been the religions more conducive to progress while Islam, Catholicism, and Orthodox Christianity have been the least conducive.

In former times the chief method of justifying the use of violence and thereby infringing the law of love was by claiming a divine right for the rulers: the Tsars, Sultans, Rajahs, Shahs, and other heads of states. But the longer humanity lived the weaker grew the belief in this peculiar, God-given right of the ruler. That belief withered in the same way and almost simultaneously in the Christian and the Brahman world, as well as in Buddhist and Confucian spheres, and in recent times it has so faded away as to prevail no longer against man's reasonable understanding

To the millions of non-Christians who live in this country, “our” culture is not their culture and they have not assimilated Christmas carols. Most people take their religion far too seriously to look upon religious songs as forms of art only. The day “Silent Night” is sung in Buddhist Temples and Jewish Synagogues throughout the United States is the day that “Silent Night” will have been assimilated into “our” culture.”

… the growth of the political independence of Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim groups from the institutions of government has allowed them to exercise greater leverage over the state and the development of more activist political theologies.

Take your time and strike a man so that he feels he is dying.

In the schools of the Western countries, there is always the subject 'Religion.' The Classics are China's religion.

I like hurting people.

To the government, terrorism committed by people who happen to be Muslim is not in any way a reflection of legitimate interpretation of Islam. You might find this hard to believe, but if you're doubting any of this, just search your own memory. All the times that we have heard that Islam's a religion of peace and that we can't use the word "terrorism" to describe it and Obama will not use it. And then remember all the times that this administration actually claims that violence by white right-wing white Christians poses a greater threat to the people of America than Islam.

She said, "It's not life or death, the labyrinth." "Um, okay. So what is it?" "Suffering," she said. "Doing wrong and having wrong things happen to you. That's the problem. Bolivar was talking about the pain, not about the living or dying. How do you get out of the labyrinth of suffering?... Nothing's wrong. But there's always suffering, Pudge. Homework or malaria or having a boyfriend who lives far away when there's a good-looking boy lying next to you. Suffering is universal. It's the one thing Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims are all worried about."

Man is the only animal who causes pain to others with no other object than wanting to do so.

I pity those born of the lighter side. They have no understanding of how seductive cruelty is. The music made out of screams and pleas for mercy. Mmmm. Nothing better. (Noir)

I tattered their wings and tore off their legs, joint by joint, watched them crawl in circles, like little lost infants, untill they decide to die.

Squatting on old bones and excrement and rusty iron, in a white blaze of heat, a panorama of naked idiots stretches to the horizon. Complete silence - their speech centres are destroyed - except for the crackle of sparks and the popping of singed flesh as they apply electrodes up and down the spine. White smoke of burning flesh hangs in the motionless air. A group of children have tied an idiot to a post with barbed wire and built a fire between his legs and stand watching with bestial curiosity as the flames lick his thighs. His flesh jerks in the fire with insect agony.

To see others suffer does one good, to make others suffer even more: this is a hard saying but an ancient, mighty, human, all-too-human principle [....] Without cruelty there is no festival.