Mary McCarthy Quotes

Blame is for God and small children.

One unconsciously takes it for granted that doer and sufferer think and feel alike, and according to this supposition we measure the guilt of the one by the pain of the other.

For to accuse requires less eloquence, such is man's nature, than to excuse; and condemnation, than absolution, more resembles justice.

If people have done something wrong then they should be held accountable.

I am innocent of the blood of this just person; see ye to it.

The light of lights looks always on the motive, not the deed, the shadow of shadows on the deed alone.

Take care that no one hates you justly.

But I don't believe in guilt by association.

To what extent is any given man morally responsible for any given act? We do not know.

You wont hear anything from me that says I didn't kill David. I did kill him.

The blame is his who chooses: God is blameless.

It's better to choose the culprits than to seek them out.

The extent of one man's guilt may be defined by how much of it is experienced by the party he injured.

When I was initially charged I still thought I was not guilty because I had followed the rules.

We know that we are not collectively guilty, so how can we accuse any other nation, no matter what some of its people have done, of being collectively guilty?

A guilty party is being sought. Such action is a favorite means of consolation in the face of calamity.

Criminals are not the victims of society; society is the victim of criminals.

Somewhere, sometime, somehow, some way these people will have to answer for their acts.

Capt. Gordon is as responsible for the death of those on the Erie. As if he had taken the life of each by his own hand. For once, when no doubt exists as to guilt, a terrible example should be made.

Those who are innocent today may be guilty tomorrow.

No man ought to be condemned for exhorting people to pursue justice in a certain line, though he may foresee that in the pursuit of that justice the opposition given to those who are proceeding in a just course may produce collision, and that collision lead to the commission of crime; but our duty, as I conceive, is to seek for the injustice, and there to impute the crime… It is to that injustice, and not to those who pursue a just course for the attainment of a right end, that the guilt is to be ascribed.

Everyone in the process of punishing has the courage of someone else’s convictions to fall back on.

If I do bad, shoot me.

Those who are incapable of committing great crimes do not readily suspect them in others.

Anybody that has had a brush with what feels like undiluted evil often ends up asking themselves the same questions - whether it's something that was a consequence of their own actions or actions that were taken against them or actions that they were caught up in.