Quotes by Mary McCarthy

Mary McCarthy

Mary McCarthy

American author

Lived from: 1912 - 1989

Category: Politics | Writers (Contemporary) Country: FlagUnited States

  • People with bad consciences always fear the judgment of children.
  • Anti-Semitism is a horrible disease from which nobody is immune, and it has a kind of evil fascination that makes an enlightened person draw near the source of infection, supposedly in a scientific spirit, but really to sniff the vapors and dally with the possibility.
  • Labor is work that leaves no trace behind it when it is finished, or if it does, as in the case of the tilled field, this product of human activity requires still more labor, incessant, tireless labor, to maintain its identity as a ''work'' of man.

Quotes 1 till 16 of 16.

  • A society person who is enthusiastic about modern painting or Truman Capote is already half a traitor to his class. It is middle-class people who, quite mistakenly, imagine that a lively pursuit of the latest in reading and painting will advance their status in the world.
    ― Mary McCarthy
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  • Anti-Semitism is a horrible disease from which nobody is immune, and it has a kind of evil fascination that makes an enlightened person draw near the source of infection, supposedly in a scientific spirit, but really to sniff the vapors and dally with the possibility.
    ― Mary McCarthy
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  • Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism.
    ― Mary McCarthy
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  • Every age has a keyhole to which its eye is pasted.
    ― Mary McCarthy
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  • In politics, it seems, retreat is honorable if dictated by military considerations and shameful if even suggested for ethical reasons.
    ― Mary McCarthy
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  • In science, all facts no matter how trivial, enjoy democratic equality.
    ― Mary McCarthy
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  • In violence we forget who we are.
    ― Mary McCarthy
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  • It has to be acknowledged that in capitalist society, with its herds of hippies, originality has become a sort of fringe benefit, a mere convention, accepted obsolescence, the Beatnik model being turned in for the Hippie model, as though strangely obedient to capitalist laws of marketing.
    ― Mary McCarthy
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  • Labor is work that leaves no trace behind it when it is finished, or if it does, as in the case of the tilled field, this product of human activity requires still more labor, incessant, tireless labor, to maintain its identity as a ''work'' of man.
    ― Mary McCarthy
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  • Liberty, as it is conceived by current opinion, has nothing inherent about it; it is a sort of gift or trust bestowed on the individual by the state pending good behavior.
    ― Mary McCarthy
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  • People with bad consciences always fear the judgment of children.
    ― Mary McCarthy
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  • The American character looks always as if it had just had a rather bad haircut, which gives it, in our eyes at any rate, a greater humanity than the European, which even among its beggars has an all too professional air.
    ― Mary McCarthy
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  • The Crucifixion and other historical precedents notwithstanding, many of us still believe that outstanding goodness is a kind of armor, that virtue, seen plain and bare, gives pause to criminality. But perhaps it is the other way around.
    ― Mary McCarthy
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  • The happy ending is our national belief.
    ― Mary McCarthy
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  • The labor of keeping house is labor in its most naked state, for labor is toil that never finishes, toil that has to be begun again the moment it is completed, toil that is destroyed and consumed by the life process.
    ― Mary McCarthy
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  • We all live in suspense from day to day; in other words, you are the hero of your own story.
    ― Mary McCarthy
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Questions and Answers

What are the most famous quotes from Mary McCarthy?

The two most famous quotes from Mary McCarthy are:

  • "A society person who is enthusiastic about modern painting or Truman Capote is already half a traitor to his class. It is middle-class people who, quite mistakenly, imagine that a lively pursuit of the latest in reading and painting will advance their status in the world."
  • "Anti-Semitism is a horrible disease from which nobody is immune, and it has a kind of evil fascination that makes an enlightened person draw near the source of infection, supposedly in a scientific spirit, but really to sniff the vapors and dally with the possibility."

When did Mary McCarthy live?

Mary McCarthy was born in 1912 and died in the year 1989.