All dramatic realism is somewhat sadistic; an audience is persuaded to watch something that makes it uncomfortable and from which no relief is offered - no laughter, no tears, no purgation. Mary McCarthy More Quotes by Mary McCarthy More Quotes From Mary McCarthy The desire to believe the best of people is a prerequisite for intercourse with strangers; suspicion is reserved for friends. Mary McCarthy friends believe people Yet friendship, I believe, is essential to intellectuals. It is probably the growth hormone the mind requires as it begins its activity of producing and exchanging ideas. You can date the evolving life of a mind, like the age of a tree, by the rings of friendship formed by the expanding central trunk. In the course of my history, not love or marriage so much as friendship has promoted growth. Mary McCarthy growth-hormones friendship believe The fact is that gardening, more than most of our other activities except sometimes love-making, confronts us with the inexplicable. Mary McCarthy gardening sometimes facts this is the spirit of the enchantment under which Venice lies, pearly and roseate, like the Sleeping Beauty, changeless throughout the centuries, arrested, while the concrete forest of the modern world grows up around her. Mary McCarthy growing-up sleep lying Venice, as a city, was a foundling, floating upon the waters like Moses in his basket among the bulrushes. Mary McCarthy venice cities water If you want to be your own master ... always be surprised by evil; never anticipate it. Mary McCarthy masters evil want The passion for fact in a raw state is a peculiarity of the novelist. Mary McCarthy novelists passion facts it's easier to forgive your enemies than to forgive your friends. Mary McCarthy forgiveness forgiving enemy Laughter is the great antidote for self-pity, maybe a specific for the malady, yet probably it does tend to dry one's feelings out a little, as if by exposing them to a vigorous wind. Mary McCarthy laughter self wind The furniture and trappings in the apartment are all in a state of flux - here today, gone tomorrow. Nothing is anchored to its place, not even the coffee-pot, which floats off and returns, on the tide of the signora's marine nature. Mary McCarthy marine coffee gone love of truth, ordinary common truth recognizable to everyone, is the ruling passion of the novel. Mary McCarthy passion common ordinary The present can try to bury the past, an operation that is most atrocious when it is most successful. Mary McCarthy successful trying past The strongest argument for the un-materialistic character of American life is that we tolerate conditions that are, from a materialistic point of view, intolerable. Mary McCarthy argument views character Who are the advertising men kidding, besides the European tourist? Between the tired, sad, gentle faces of the subway riders and the grinning Holy Families of the Ad-Mass, there exists no possibility of even a wishful identification. Mary McCarthy tired faces men We are a nation of 20 million bathrooms, with a humanist in every tub. Mary McCarthy tubs bathroom humanity ... the average Catholic perceives no connection between religion and morality, unless it is a question of someone else's morality. Mary McCarthy catholic average religion 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 Lord Jesus had never entered her heart. Her piety was an act of war against Protestant ascendancy. ...The teachings of the Church did not interest her, except as they were a rebuke to others. Mary McCarthy christian war jesus ... in America ... children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics. Mary McCarthy happy children america Labor is work that leaves no trace behind it when it is finished. Mary McCarthy incessant behinds labor ...the tourist Venice is Venice. Mary McCarthy venice tourists
