“In fact, the French - who read and theorise the most - became so addicted to political experiment that in the two centuries since our own rather drab revolution they have exuberantly produced one Directory, one Consulate, two empires, three restorations of the monarchy, and five republics. That's what happens when you take writing too seriously.”

—  Gore Vidal

"Lincoln and the Priests of Academe"
1990s, United States - Essays 1952-1992 (1992)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In fact, the French - who read and theorise the most - became so addicted to political experiment that in the two centu…" by Gore Vidal?
Gore Vidal photo
Gore Vidal 163
American writer 1925–2012

Related quotes

Gertrude Stein photo

“A saint is one to be for two when three and you make five and two and cover.
A at most.
Saint saint a saint.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

Four Saints in Three Acts (1927)
Operas and Plays (1932)

Andrew Dickson White photo

“TURGOT…I present today one of the three greatest statesmen who fought unreason in France between the close of the Middle Ages and the outbreak of the French Revolution—Louis XI and Richelieu being the two other.”

Andrew Dickson White (1832–1918) American politician

Source: Seven Great Statesmen in the Warfare of Humanity with Unreason (1915), p. 165
Context: TURGOT... I present today one of the three greatest statesmen who fought unreason in France between the close of the Middle Ages and the outbreak of the French Revolution—Louis XI and Richelieu being the two other. And not only this: were you to count the greatest men of the modern world upon your fingers, he would be of the number—a great thinker, writer, administrator, philanthropist, statesman, and above all, a great character and a great man. And yet, judged by ordinary standards, a failure. For he was thrown out of his culminating position, as Comptroller-General of France, after serving but twenty months, and then lived only long enough to see every leading measure to which he had devoted his life deliberately and malignantly undone; the flagrant abuses which he had abolished restored, apparently forever; the highways to national prosperity, peace, and influence, which he had opened, destroyed; and his country put under full headway toward the greatest catastrophe the modern world has seen.

George Orwell photo
Anne Bancroft photo
Eric Hobsbawm photo
Mike McCormack photo
Robert Browning photo
Imre Kertész photo

“There’s just one revolution that I can take seriously, and that’s a police revolution.”

Imre Kertész (1929–2016) Hungarian writer

Source: Detective Story (2008), p. 15.

Related topics