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
If someone tells you he is going to make a 'realistic decision', you immediately understand that he has resolved to do something bad.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that the term 'realistic decision' often implies choosing a morally questionable path.
Mary McCarthy's quote points to the idea that when people frame their choices as 'realistic,' they may be masking unethical considerations behind a facade of practicality. It challenges the notion that realism is inherently virtuous, suggesting that what is deemed realistic can often align with negative or harmful actions.
Themes
RealismEthicsDecisionsMoralityPracticality
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about ethical leadership, you could quote this to emphasize the importance of integrity over mere practicality.
More from Mary Mccarthy
All quotes βThe 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.
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Every word she writes is a lie, including "and" and "the."
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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.
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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
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