How many women, she wondered, had poisoned their husbands, not for gain or for another man, but out of sheer inability to leave them. The extreme solution is always the simplest. The weed killer is in the soup; the man is in his coffin.… Murder is more civilized than divorce; the Victorians, as usual, were wiser.

—Mary McCarthy

More quotations from Mary McCarthy

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

—Mary McCarthy

writing misfortune

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

heroism anticipation suspense

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

—Mary McCarthy

justice society

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.

—Mary McCarthy

action knowledge morality regret bad good

More quotations tagged with “murder”

When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of it, always.

—Mahatma Gandhi

truth love history time inevitability tyranny murder

In films murders are always very clean. I show how difficult it is and what a messy thing it is to kill a man.

—Alfred Hitchcock

killing murder film cleanliness

In nothing does man, with his grand notions of heaven and charity, show forth his innate, wild animalism more clearly than in his treatment of his brother beasts. From the shepherd with his lambs to the red-handed hunter, it is the same: no recognition of rights—only murder in one form or another.

murder animals heaven charity

In films murders are always very clean. I show how difficult it is and what a messy thing it is to kill a man.

—Alfred Hitchcock

killing murder movies cinema messiness

War is murder writ large.

—Carl Sagan in Cosmos

war violence murder

History

23 Nov 2014 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

How many women, she wondered, had poisoned their husbands, not for gain or for another man, but out of sheer inability to leave them. The extreme solution is always the simplest. The weed killer is in the soup; the man is in his coffin. . . . Murder is more civilized than divorce; the Victorians, as usual, were wiser.