# Quote — Gore Vidal, Julian

> We are all in the habit of censuring the great, as if we were popular playwrights, when in fact ordinary folk are quite as devious and as willful and as desperate to survive (if not prevail) as are thee great; particularly philosophers.

- Author: [Gore Vidal](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal.md)
- Book: [Julian](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/julian.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gore_Vidal#Julian_(1964)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/julian/we-are-all-in

## More from this book

> It is one thing to use text to illustrate a point one is making, but quite another to quote merely to demonstrate the excellence of one's memory.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/julian/it-is-one.md)

> Constantinople has no past; only a noisy present and a splendid future, if the auguries are to be believed.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/julian/constantinople-has-no-past.md)

> ...for ferocity there is nothing on Earth equal a Christian bishop hunting "heresy", as they call any opinion contrary to their own.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/julian/for-ferocity-there.md)