Quotes By 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.

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

My hobby of not attending meetings about recycling saves more energy than your hobby of recycling.

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

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.

Suicidal terrorists may have short shelf lives.

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

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

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

With no more than six levels of misquotation, any statement can be made to say whatever you wish.

We modern Marxists regard socialism as a historically brief transitional stage between feudalism and capitalism, necessary only in backward countries.

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.

The peace movement is a great force for peace. Some of the world's most quarrelsome people act out their aggressions through the peace movement.

Compassion is contempt with a human face.

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

It is said that man doesn't live by bread alone. Sometimes this is unfortunate, because people who cannot live by bread alone too often kill other people in consequence of the fights they get into.

Honor among thieves is the ancestor of all honor.

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

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

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

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.

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

Self-righteousness has killed more people than smoking.

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.

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

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