The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.
H. L. MENCKENThere’s really no point to voting. If it made any difference, it would probably be illegal.
More H. L. Mencken Quotes
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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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The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.
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After all is said and done, a hell lot of a lot more is said than done.
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Most people want security in this world, not liberty.
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It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.
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The chief difference between free capitalism and State socialism seems to be this: that under the former a man pursues his own advantage openly, frankly and honestly, whereas under the latter he does so hypocritically and under false pretenses.
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Journalism is to politician as dog is to lamp-post.
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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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The best teacher is not the one who knows most but the one who is most capable of reducing knowledge to that simple compound of the obvious and wonderful.
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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.
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The State doesn’t just want you to obey, it wants to make you WANT to obey.
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No professional politician is ever actually in favor of public economy. It is his implacable enemy, and he knows it. All professional politicians are dedicated wholeheartedly to waste and corruption. They are the enemies of every decent man.
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The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
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Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
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Always remember this: If you don’t attend the funerals of your friends, they will certainly not attend yours.
H. L. MENCKEN