Mary McCarthy: Quotes about people

“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

"Up the Ladder from Charm to Vogue", p. 185
On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946–1961 (1961)

People , World , Imagination , Reading

“The theater is the only branch of art much cared for by people of wealth; like canasta, it does away with the bother of talk after dinner.”

Mary McCarthy

"Up the Ladder from Charm to Vogue", p. 185. First published in two parts in The Reporter (July 18 and August 1, 1950)
On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946–1961 (1961)

People , Art , Wealth

“People with bad consciences always fear the judgment of children.”

Mary McCarthy

"The Contagion of Ideas", p. 54
On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946–1961 (1961)

Children , People , Fear

“To be disesteemed by people you don’t have much respect for is not the worst fate.”

Mary McCarthy

New York Times (27 August 1984)

Fate , People

“The clamor of agreement betrayed the anti-French sentiment ever ready to be mobilized when Americans in Paris got together. And as happened with anti-Semites merrily fraternizing, nobody at the table seemed to remember that there were French people present.”

Mary McCarthy

"Round Table, with the Damsel Parcenet"
Birds of America (1971)

People

“Yet it was part of being an American that, once you got started, you felt impelled to tell all the people all the truth all the time.”

Mary McCarthy

"To Be a Pilgrim"
Birds of America (1971)

Truth , Time , People , Parting

“As Socrates showed, love cannot be anything else but the love of the good. But to find the good is very rare. That is why love is rare, in spite of what people think. It happens to one in a thousand, and to that one it is a revelation. No wonder he cannot communicate with the other nine hundred and ninety-nine.”

Mary McCarthy book The Group

Mr Schneider in Ch. 12
The Group (1963)

People , Communication , Thinking , Love

“From what I have seen, I am driven to the conclusion that religion is only good for good people, and I do not mean this as a paradox, but simply as an observable fact. Only good people can afford to be religious. For the others it is too great a temptation — a temptation to the deadly sins of pride and anger, chiefly, but one might also add sloth.”

Mary McCarthy book Memories of a Catholic Girlhood

"To the Reader"
Memories of a Catholic Girlhood (1957)

Religion , People , Anger