"You act as if the human race had learned nothing, as if everything were possible, as if we could all start on a new phase every day. Or a new wife. It's all the same. You take up a doubting posture. But you don't really doubt. You just ask questions, like a machine." Her voice rose, in slight hysteria. Warren looked at her in consternation. "Forgive me," she put in. "But it's true. And the whole world is getting like you, like New Leeds. Everybody has to be shown. 'How do you know that?' every moron asks the philosopher when he is told that this is an apple and that is a pear. He pretends to doubt, to be curious. But nobody is really curious because nobody cares what the truth is. As soon as we think something, it occurs to us that the opposite or the contrary might just as well be true. And no one cares."
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Novelists from the United StatesWomen authors from the United StatesCritics from the United StatesWomen academics from the United StatesPlaywrights from the United States
Original Language: English
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Martha in Ch. 12, pp. 732–733
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mary_McCarthy
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Mary McCarthy
Mary Therese McCarthy (21 June 1912 – 25 October 1989) was an American author and critic.
145 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Mary McCarthy →
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