80 result(s) for H. L. Mencken Quotes.
"A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin."
"All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it."
"The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it's good-bye to the Bill of Rights."
"To be in love is merely to be in a state of perpetual anesthesia - to mistake an ordinary young woman for a goddess."
"Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right."
"The final test of truth is ridicule. Very few dogmas have ever faced it and survived."
"It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man."
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"Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking."
"Morality is doing what is right, regardless of what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, regardless of what is right."
"It is inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office."
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule it."
"Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another."
"No one in this world... ever loses money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people."
"It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place."
"The trouble with Communism is the Communists, just as the trouble with Christianity is the Christians."
"The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear – fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety."
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."
"It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull."
"The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth."
"Laws are no longer made by a rational process, but by will of a dictator."
"All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him."
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"Before a man speaks it is always safe to assume that he is a fool. After he speaks, it is seldom necessary to assume it."
"A newspaper is a device unable to distinguish between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization."
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false-front for the urge to rule."
"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."
"Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable."
"To be in love is merely to be in a state of perceptual anesthesia--to mistake an ordinary young woman for a goddess."
"The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in which it is overestimated."
"For every complex problem there is a solution that is clear, simple, and wrong."
"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance."
"A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar."
"To be in love is merely to be in a state of perceptual anesthesia."
"The cynics are right nine times out of ten."
"There is always an easy solution to every human problem - neat, plausible, and wrong."
"I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone."
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"A home is not a mere transient shelter: its essence lies in the personalities of the people who live in it."
"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels."
"On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
"The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind."
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong."
"The men the American public admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth."
"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."
"Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone may be looking."
"Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."
"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos."
"We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart."
"The theory behind representative government is that superior men—or even if not superior, then at least men not given to all the vices of ordinary men—are chosen to manage the public affairs."
"The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom."
"The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots."
"A national political campaign is better than the best circus ever heard of, with a mass baptism and a couple of hangings thrown in."
"It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office."
"Say what you will about the ten commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them."
"In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican."
"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all."
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule."
"On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
"A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married."
"The average man does not want to be free. He merely wants to be safe."
"Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."
"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable."
"I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant."
"The only way to believe that তুমি ভালো আছো is to be so."
"Theology: An ass waving his ears at a cosmic piano."
"The great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom ever ordinarily respectable."
"A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers."
"Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop."
"Morality is doing what is right regardless of what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told regardless of what is right."
"The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor."
"An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup."
"It is even harder to admit that one has been bored than that one has been properly scared."
"There is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong."
"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first framed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all."
"The theory seems to be that as long as a politician faces the cameras, he is campaigning."
"The demagogue is simply a politician who pretends to be something he is not: an average man."
"Immorality: The morality of those who are having more fun."
"Journalism is to steal a phrase from Oscar Wilde must be 'either plagiarism or revolution."
"Human suffering is due less to ill luck than to incompetence."
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