John McCarthy Quotes

"Of course, Third World leaders love you. By ascribing third world ills to First World sins, you absolve them of blame for their countries' failure to advance."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Love, Failure, Blame, Countries, First, Leaders, World)

"It is said that man doesn't live by bread alone. Sometimes this is unfortunate, because people who cannot live by bread alone too often kill other people in consequence of the fights they get into."
- John McCarthy
(Related: People, Man)

"Inside of many liberals is a fascist struggling to get out."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Liberals)

"Language is froth on the surface of thought."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Thought, Language)

"In human history, the desire for revenge and the desire for loot have often been closely associated."
- John McCarthy
(Related: History, Desire, Revenge)

"My hobby of not attending meetings about recycling saves more energy than your hobby of recycling."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Energy, Meetings, Recycling)

"My opinion is that he's a swindler and you're a sucker."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Opinion)

"Never abandon a theory that explains something until you have a theory that explains more."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Theory)

"Once a person has killed other people on behalf of an ideology, he becomes rather devoted to it."
- John McCarthy
(Related: People, Ideology)

"Proposals to forbid golf courses have about the same motivations as proposals to forbid skate boarding, although the rationalizations are different."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Golf)

"Self-righteousness has killed more people than smoking."
- John McCarthy
(Related: People, Self, Smoking)

"If I owned Marseilles and Hell, I'd rent out Marseilles and live in Hell."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Hell)

"When thugs by nature meet thugs by political conviction, 5-0 is not surprising."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Nature, Conviction)

"Foolishness is rarely a matter of lack of intelligence or even lack of information."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Intelligence, Foolishness, Information)

"The peace movement is a great force for peace. Some of the world's most quarrelsome people act out their aggressions through the peace movement."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Peace, People, Act, Force, World)

"The slogan was 'Don't trust anyone over thirty'. Sixty years later the slogan became, 'Don't trust anyone over ninety'."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Trust, Years)

"There is only one thing more harmful to society than an elected official forgetting the promises he made in order to get elected; that's when he doesn't forget them."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Society, Forget, Order, Promises)

"We modern Marxists regard socialism as a historically brief transitional stage between feudalism and capitalism, necessary only in backward countries."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Capitalism, Countries, Socialism)

"Slogans rarely convince the unconvinced. However, they do rally the troops already on your side."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Troops)

"Asking a critic to name his favorite book is like asking a butcher to name his favorite pig."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Favorite, Name)

"With no more than six levels of misquotation, any statement can be made to say whatever you wish."
- John McCarthy

"The difference between a contemporary liberal and a socialist is that to a liberal the most beautiful word in the English language is 'forbidden', whereas to a socialist the most beautiful word is 'compulsory'."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Difference, English, Language, Liberal, Word)

"When I see a slippery slope, my instinct is to build a terrace."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Instinct)

"A declining institution often experiences survival of the unfittest."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Survival)

"A true intellectual is a man who, after reading a book and being convinced by its arguments, will shoot someone or, more likely, order someone shot."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Arguments, Being, Man, Order, Reading, Will)

"Alas few socialists are either benevolent enough to work hard at these occupations out of benevolence or self-interested enough to work hard at them for money."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Money, Work, Benevolence, Occupations, Self)

"Amateur bureaucrats are often even worse than professional bureaucrats."
- John McCarthy

"Hardly anyone has noticed that in the Northern Hemisphere people stir their drinks counterclockwise, whereas the same people stir their drinks clockwise when visiting the Southern Hemisphere."
- John McCarthy
(Related: People, Drinks)

"An extreme optimist is a man who believes that humanity will probably survive even if it doesn't take his advice."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Advice, Extreme, Humanity, Will)

"If a person can be said to have the wrong attitude, there is no need to pay attention to his arguments."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Attitude, Arguments, Attention, Wrong)

"Both politicians and journalists face situations which strain their honesty and humanity. My opinion is that politicians on the average stand up somewhat better than journalists."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Honesty, Humanity, Opinion, Politicians)

"Committing genocide on behalf of an institution generates greater loyalty to it than merely getting people fired from their jobs on its behalf."
- John McCarthy
(Related: People, Genocide, Jobs, Loyalty)

"Compassion is contempt with a human face."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Compassion, Contempt)

"Don't try to talk anyone out of concentrating his hatred on Ayn Rand or any other dead person. It can't harm the dead. Diverted to a living person, it might actually do harm."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Harm, Hatred, Living, Talk)

"Hard distinctions make bad philosophy."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Philosophy)

"He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Arithmetic, Nonsense, Talk)

"His ambition is to be the spider in the World Wide Web."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Ambition, World)

"Honor among thieves is the ancestor of all honor."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Honor)

"An excessive knowledge of Marxism is a sign of a misspent youth."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Knowledge, Marxism, Youth)

"Soccer riots kill at most tens. Intellectuals' ideological riots sometimes kill millions."
- John McCarthy
(Related: Intellectuals, Soccer)