Is it really so difficult to tell a good action from a bad one? I think one usually knows right away or a moment afterward, in a horrid flash of regret.

The worst thing that can happen to a writer is to become a Writer.

—Mary McCarthy

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 McCarthy

An unrectified case of injustice has a terrible way of lingering, restlessly, in the social atmosphere like an unfinished equation.

—Mary McCarthy

Where humor is concerned there are no standards—no one can say what is good or bad, although you can be sure that everyone will.

—John Kenneth Galbraith

If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.

—Anna Quindlen

Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.

—Baltasar Gracián

He who stops being better stops being good.

—Oliver Cromwell

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

—Steven Weinberg