Envy is the central fact of American life.
Interpretation
Envy shapes social dynamics and attitudes in American culture.
Gore Vidal's statement on envy highlights its pervasive influence in American life, suggesting that feelings of jealousy and desire for what others have are central to understanding social interactions and behaviors in the society. This notion reflects on how envy can drive competition, create divides, and shape individuals' perceptions of success and happiness within a collective culture.
In practice
During a keynote speech, I mentioned, 'As Gore Vidal said, envy is the central fact of American life, reminding us to be aware of how jealousy affects our interactions and aspirations.
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.
American writers want to be not good but great; and so are neither.
Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith.
The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
For the average American, freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.
Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society.... To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.
I am a Black woman raised by parents who were active in the civil-rights movement.
Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live for ever, and this must be either true or false. Now there are a good many things which would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only seventy years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live for ever.
The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one's self.
Human affairs are so obscure and various that nothing can be clearly known.
What is there astonishing in the death of a mortal? But we are grieved at his dying before his time. Are we sure that this was not his time? We do not know how to pick and choose what is good for our souls, or how to fix the limits of the life of man.
Idleness, we are accustomed to say, is the root of all evil. To prevent this evil, work is recommended.... Idleness as such is by no means a root of evil; on the contrary, it is truly a divine life, if one is not bored.
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