Quotes from Creation

Gore Vidal ·  574 pages

Rating: (3.1K votes)


“In fact, life itself is a contradiction if only because birth is the direct cause, in every single case, of death”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Creation


“I say his version because there is no such thing as a true account of anything. Each sees the world from his own vantage point. Needless to say, a throne is not the best place from which to view anything except the backs of prostrate men.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Creation


“Is it not better for a man never to have been born?"
"Certaintly not" The response was brisk. "Just to be able to study the sky is reason enough to be alive."
"Unfortunately, I can't see the sky."
"Then listen to music.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Creation


“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.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Creation


“...,I have never visited any city in the world where I was not told that I just missed the golden age. I seem never to be on time." Cyrus Sitema”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Creation



“Democritus is studying philosophy here at Athens. This means that he delights in quarrels.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Creation


“All over Greece, strangers of a certain age will greet one another with the question, "And where were you and what did you do when Xerxes came to Marathon?" Then they exchange lies.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Creation


“I would not be surprised if elephants are more intelligent than human beings. After all, their heads are larger than ours, and the fact that they do not speak might well be an indication of superiority.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Creation


“I said it. I like to quote myself. I am not modest.”
― Gore Vidal, quote from Creation


About the author

Gore Vidal
Born place: in West Point, New York, The United States
Born date October 3, 1925
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“Either a building is part of a place or it is not. Once that kinship is there, time will only make it stronger.”
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“Peaches and Cheese”:

The vagabond sun winks down through the trees,
While lilacs, like memories, waft on the breeze,
My friend, I was born for days such as these,
To inhale perfume,
And cut through the gloom,
And feast like a king upon peaches and cheese!
I’ll travel this wide world and go where I please,
Can’t stop my wand’ring, it’s like a disease.
My only regret as I cross the high seas:
What I leave behind,
Though I hope to find,
My own golden city of peaches and cheese!

― Rachel Hartman, quote from Seraphina


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