Chapters Quote by Mary McCarthy

From what I have seen, I am driven to the conclusion that religion is only good for good people.

— Mary McCarthy

In morals as in politics anarchy is not for the weak.

— Mary McCarthy

Yet friendship, I believe, is essential to intellectuals. It is probably the growth hormone the mind requires as it begins its activity of producing…

— Mary McCarthy

Any sizeable Portuguese town looks like a superstitious bride's finery - something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.

— Mary McCarthy

The desire to believe the best of people is a prerequisite for intercourse with strangers; suspicion is reserved for friends.

— Mary McCarthy

“She considered [her] life, which had not been a life but only a sort of greeting, a Hello There.”

— Mary McCarthy

America is indeed a revelation, though not quite the one that was planned. Given a clean slate, man, it was hoped, would write the…

— Mary McCarthy

The happy ending is our national belief.

— Mary McCarthy

Making love, we are all more alike than we are when we are talking or acting.

— Mary McCarthy

... in America ... children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending…

— Mary McCarthy

The only form of action open to a child is to break something or strike someone, its mother or another child; it cannot cause…

— Mary McCarthy

Combativeness was, I suppose, the dominant trait in my grandmother's nature. An aggressive churchgoer, she was quite without Christian feeling; the mercy of the…

— Mary McCarthy