John McCarthy

“Compassion is contempt with a human face.”

“He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.”

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

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

“When I see a slippery slope, my instinct is to build a terrace.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“Both politicians and journalists face situations which strain their honesty and humanity. My opinion is that politicians on the average stand up somewhat better than journalists.”

“Proposals to forbid golf courses have about the same motivations as proposals to forbid skate boarding, although the rationalizations are different.”

“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.”

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

“Amateur bureaucrats are often even worse than professional bureaucrats.”

“Foolishness is rarely a matter of lack of intelligence or even lack of information.”

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

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

“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.”