"We all live in suspense, from day to day, from hour to hour; in other words, we are the hero of our own story."
"For me, in fact, the mark of the historic is the nonchalance with which it picks up an individual and deposits him in a trend, like a house playfully moved by a tornado."
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Source: Mary McCarthy (2002). “A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays”, New York Review of Books
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"The Crucifixion and other historical precedents notwithstanding, many of us still believe that outstanding goodness is a kind of armor, that virtue, seen plain and bare, gives pause to criminality. But perhaps it is the other way around."
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