We all live in suspense, from day to day, from hour to hour; in other words, we are the hero of our own story.
Mary MccarthyRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Anti-Semitism is a pervasive issue that can attract even those with good intentions, leading them to engage with it dangerously.
Mary McCarthy's quote highlights the insidious nature of anti-Semitism, describing it as a disease that can infect anyone, regardless of their enlightenment or intentions. It underscores the temptation for individuals, even those who seek to understand it academically, to approach it with a morbid curiosity instead of a genuine desire to combat the evil behind it.
Themes
Anti-SemitismDiseaseFascinationEvilEnlightenment
In practice
Example use cases
During a seminar on social issues, one might use this quote to discuss the dangers of complacency in the face of hatred.
More from Mary Mccarthy
All quotes →The exile is a singular, whereas refugees tend to be thought of in the mass ... What is implied in these nuances of social standing is the respect we pay to choice. The exile appears to have made a decision, while the refugee is the very image of helplessness.
Mary MccarthyRead
Every word she writes is a lie, including "and" and "the."
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If one means by style the voice, the irreducible and always recognizable and alive thing, then of course style is really everything.
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To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.
Mary MccarthyRead
You mustn't force sex to do the work of love or love to do the work of sex.
Mary MccarthyRead
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