From what I have seen, I am driven to the conclusion that religion is only good for good people, and I do not mean this as a paradox, but simply as a… - Mary McCarthy

They would not be happy unless she conformed to their definition of enjoyment, which meant that she would have to be miserable to satisfy them.

About truth I have always been monotheistic. It has been an article of faith with me, going back to college days, that there is a truth and that it is knowable.

The essence of Vassar is mythic. Today, despite much competition, it still figures in the public mind as the archetypal woman's college. […] It signifies a certain je ne sais quoi; a whiff of luxury and the ineffable; plain thinking and high living. […] For different people, in fact, at different periods, Vassar can stand for whatever is felt to be wrong with the modern female: humanism, atheism, Communism, short skirts, cigarettes, psychiatry, votes for women, free love, intellectualism. Pre-eminently among American college women, the Vassar girl is thought of as carrying a banner. The inscription on it varies with the era or with the ideas of the beholder and in the final sense does not matter — the flushed cheek and tensed arm are what count.