Quotes By 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'.

Slogans rarely convince the unconvinced. However, they do rally the troops already on your side.

Suicidal terrorists may have short shelf lives.

Inside of many liberals is a fascist struggling to get out.

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.

Amateur bureaucrats are often even worse than professional bureaucrats.

Asking a critic to name his favorite book is like asking a butcher to name his favorite pig.

Never abandon a theory that explains something until you have a theory that explains more.

He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.

Proposals to forbid golf courses have about the same motivations as proposals to forbid skate boarding, although the rationalizations are different.

Foolishness is rarely a matter of lack of intelligence or even lack of information.

Compassion is contempt with a human face.

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.

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.

Honor among thieves is the ancestor of all honor.

My opinion is that he's a swindler and you're a sucker.

The slogan was 'Don't trust anyone over thirty'. Sixty years later the slogan became, 'Don't trust anyone over ninety'.

If a person can be said to have the wrong attitude, there is no need to pay attention to his arguments.

Once a person has killed other people on behalf of an ideology, he becomes rather devoted to it.

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.

Soccer riots kill at most tens. Intellectuals' ideological riots sometimes kill millions.

Self-righteousness has killed more people than smoking.

When thugs by nature meet thugs by political conviction, 5-0 is not surprising.

Committing genocide on behalf of an institution generates greater loyalty to it than merely getting people fired from their jobs on its behalf.

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.

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.

Language is froth on the surface of thought.

A declining institution often experiences survival of the unfittest.

If I owned Marseilles and Hell, I'd rent out Marseilles and live in Hell.

An excessive knowledge of Marxism is a sign of a misspent youth.