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Quote by Mary McCarthy

“With extramarital courtship, the deception was prolonged where it had been ephemeral, necessary where it had been frivolous, conspiratorial where it had been lonely.”

Quote by Mary McCarthy

Book:The company she keeps

Work

The company she keeps

This book delves into the complexities of relationships and the impact of shared experiences on individual development. more

Author

Mary McCarthy was a prominent American author born on June 21, 1912, and passed away on October 25, 1989. Known for her incisive social criticism and nuanced portrayal of human nature, she is considered one of the most influential figures in 20th-century American literature. more

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“The famous Florentine elegance, which attracts tourists to the shops on Via Tornabuoni and Via della Vigna Nuova, is characterized by austerity of line, simplicity, economy of effect.”

Lines Economy Effects Simplicity Shops Elegance Tourists Austerity

Book:The Stones of Florence

Source: The Stones of Florence

“Anybody who has ever tried to rectify an injustice or set a record straight comes to feel that he is going mad.”

Feels Records Mad Injustice Rectify

Book:The humanist in the bathtub

Source: The humanist in the bathtub

“Leisure was the sine qua non of the full Renaissance. The feudal nobility, having lost its martial function, sought diversion all over Europe in cultivated pastimes: sonneteering, the lute, games and acrostics, travel, gentlemanly studies and sports, hunting and hawking, treated as arts.”

Art Games Lost Sports Study Europe Function Treated Hunting Leisure Nobility Renaissance Pastime Diversion Gentlemanly

Book:Venice observed

Source: Venice observed

“All ideas advanced to deal with the Florentine noise problem, the Florentine traffic problem, are Utopian, and nobody believes in them, just as nobody believed in Machiavelli's Prince, a Utopian image of the ideally self-interested despot.”

Believe Ideas Self Problem Deals Noise Traffic Utopian Despots

Book:The Stones of Florence

Source: The Stones of Florence

“It is impossible, except for theologians, to conceive of a world-wide scandal or a universe-wide scandal; the proof of this is the way people have settled down to living with nuclear fission, radiation poisoning, hydrogen bombs, satellites, and space rockets.”

Source: The humanist in the bathtub

“Like Michelangelo and Cellini, Florentines of every station are absorbed in acquiring real estate: a little apartment that can be rented to foreigners; a farm that will supply the owner with oil, wine, fruit, and flowers for the house.”

Littles Real House Flower Wine Property Fruit Oil Owners Stations Farms Apartment Estates Foreigners

Book:The Stones of Florence

Source: The Stones of Florence

“Every age has a keyhole to which its eye is pasted. Spicy court-memoirs, the lives of gallant ladies, recollections of an ex-nun, a monk's confession, an atheist's repentance, true-to-life accounts of prostitution and bastardy gave our ancestors a penny peep into the forbidden room.”

Source: A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays

“It [Socialism] was a kind of political hockey played by big, gaunt, dyspeptic girls in pants.”

Kind Bigs Political Girl Socialism Hockey Pants

Book:A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays

Source: A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays

“In moments of despair, we look on ourselves lead-enly as objects; we see ourselves, our lives, as someone else might see them and may even be driven to kill ourselves if the separation, the "knowledge," seems sufficiently final.”

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Book:On the contrary

Source: On the contrary

“The perennial wonder of Venice is to peer at herself in her canals and find that she exists-incredible as it seems. It is the same reassurance that a looking-glass offers us: the guarantee that we are real.”

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Book:Venice observed

Source: Venice observed