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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that liberty is not an inherent right but rather something granted by the state based on an individual's behavior.
Mary McCarthy argues that contemporary interpretations of liberty suggest its contingent nature, implying that individuals do not possess inherent rights to freedom. Instead, freedom is perceived as a privilege granted by the government, which can be revoked based on societal norms and expectations of good behavior, reflecting the complex relationship between individual rights and state authority.
Themes
LibertyFreedomStateTrustBehavior
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about civil rights at a university event, this quote can be used to illustrate the fragility of liberties.
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."
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.
Mary MccarthyRead
If one means by style the voice, the irreducible and always recognizable and alive thing, then of course style is really everything.
Mary MccarthyRead
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
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The law itself is on trial quite as much as the cause which is to be decided.
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