A declining institution often experiences survival of the unfittest.
John McCarthy

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

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

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

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

An extreme optimist is a man who believes that humanity will probably survive even if it doesn't take his advice.
John McCarthy

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

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

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

Compassion is contempt with a human face.
John McCarthy


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

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

Hard distinctions make bad philosophy.
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

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

His ambition is to be the spider in the World Wide Web.
John McCarthy

Honor among thieves is the ancestor of all honor.
John McCarthy

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

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

In human history, the desire for revenge and the desire for loot have often been closely associated.
John McCarthy