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In politics, it seems, retreat is honorable if dictated by military considerations and shameful if even suggested for ethical reasons.

— Mary McCarthy

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Source and credibility

Wikiquote does not flag this quote as disputed or misattributed.

Source: "Solutions," Vietnam (1967)
Source quality: Source identified Names the work or year, but without an exact location.

More by Mary McCarthy

You mustn't force sex to do the work of love or love to do the work of sex.

The Group (1963)

We are a nation of twenty million bathrooms, with a humanist in every tub.

On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946–1961 (1961)

Life for the European is a career; for the American, it is a hazard.

On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946–1961 (1961)

Every word she writes is a lie, including and and the.

Comment about Lillian Hellman in a televised interview (1979)

Every age has a keyhole to which its eye is pasted.

On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946–1961 (1961)

You never learn a language unless you use it.

Cannibals and Missionaries (1979)

As subjects, we all live in suspense, from day to day, from hour to hour; in other words, we are the hero of our own story.

On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946–1961 (1961)

If you want to be your own master, his father used to say, always be surprised by evil; never anticipate it.

Birds of America (1971)

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Topics

Politics

More quotes by Mary McCarthy

I am putting real plums into an imaginary cake.

People with bad consciences always fear the judgment of children.

On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946–1961 (1961)

Nobody in this land, certainly no Christian, can accept hating on a full-time basis; it is apt to reflect back on the hater.

How I Grew (1987)

I combine concrete cynicism with a sort of vague optimism.

She decided she wanted a cool, starchy independent life, with ruffles of humor like window curtains.

The Group (1963)

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Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.

Albert Einstein

Every Communist must grasp the truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

Mao Zedong

Three-fourths of the Italian economy, industrial and agricultural, is in the hands of the state.

Benito Mussolini

Fear and destructiveness are the major emotional sources of fascism, eros belongs mainly to democracy.

Theodor Adorno The Authoritarian Personality (1950)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Mary McCarthy (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.