Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
H. L. MENCKENLove is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop.
More H. L. Mencken Quotes
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There is no idea so stupid that you can’t find a professor who will believe it.
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If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.
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Government’s great contribution to human wisdom is the discovery that the taxpayer has more than one pocket.
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People do not expect to find chastity in a whorehouse. Why, then, do they expect to find honesty and humanity in government, a congeries of institutions whose modus operandi consists of lying, cheating, stealing, and if need be, murdering those who resist?
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A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.
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Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.
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A professional politician is a professionally dishonorable man. In order to get anywhere near high office he has to make so many compromises and submit to so many humiliations that he becomes indistinguishable from a streetwalker.
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Evangelical Christianity, as everyone knows, is founded upon hate, as the Christianity of Christ was founded upon love.
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Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop.
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There are two kinds of Europeans: The smart ones, and those who stayed behind.
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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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The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.
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Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
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Always remember this: If you don’t attend the funerals of your friends, they will certainly not attend yours.
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Journalism is to politician as dog is to lamp-post.
H. L. MENCKEN






