A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.
H. L. MENCKENWhat men value in this world is not rights but privileges.
More H. L. Mencken Quotes
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Socialist: A man suffering from an overwhelming conviction to believe what is not true.
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There are two kinds of Europeans: The smart ones, and those who stayed behind.
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Free speech is too dangerous to a democracy to be permitted.
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The only thing wrong with Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was that it was the South, not the North, that was fighting for a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
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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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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.
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Imagine the Creator as a low comedian, and at once the world becomes explicable.
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Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.
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Journalism is to politician as dog is to lamp-post.
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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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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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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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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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The State doesn’t just want you to obey, it wants to make you WANT to obey.
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The average man does not get pleasure out of an idea because he thinks it is true; he thinks it is true because he gets pleasure out of it.
H. L. MENCKEN