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.
H. L. MENCKEN
H. L. MENCKEN
H. L. Mencken on beginning
H. L. Mencken76 quotes“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.”
More from H. L. Mencken
Imagine the Creator as a low comedian, and at once the world becomes explicable.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken There is no idea so stupid that you can’t find a professor who will believe it.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken Free speech is too dangerous to a democracy to be permitted.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken 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.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken 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.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken Freedom of press is limited to those who own one.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken 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.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken It is the classic fallacy of our time that a moron run through a university and decorated with a Ph.D. will thereby cease to be a moron.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken What men value in this world is not rights but privileges.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken 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.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken
Original quotes
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ShamaShama I wish I knew then all of the things I know now that I am enough.
TMCTMC I feel like I’m on fire, fighting for a moment on respite – I’m not placing bets.
M.K. StandbyM.K. Standby I found him in all the chaos, and that was when my world started making sense again.
MoomerMoomer The judgement that people cast on you for how you do or do not appear is nothing more than just a projection of their own wounds.
Taj AroraTaj Arora Be grateful for what you have now, even if it’s not everything you wanted.
Sonia SabnisSonia Sabnis It seems strange how we look in the same mirror, yet what stares back, is so painfully different.
Chris AllchinChris Allchin
More on beginning
Allow failure to teach you A supreme lesson: Each sunset is the beginning Of a very, very bright And powerful sunrise.
Sri ChinmoySri Chinmoy He who did well in war just earns the right, To begin doing well in peace.
Robert BrowningRobert Browning The way you begin each day defines how you’ll live each day.
Robin SharmaRobin Sharma Very early in life I became fascinated with the wonders language can achieve. And I began playing with words.
Gwendolyn BrooksGwendolyn Brooks When you come to the end, that’s where God begins.
Mitch AlbomMitch Albom He grew weary of this condescension, and began to treat the opinions of his wife with that haughtiuess and insolence, which none but those who deserve some contempt themselves can bestow, and those only who deserve no contempt can bear.
Henry FieldingHenry Fielding It is said of great Empires, That the best way to preserve them from decay, is to bring them back to the first Principles, and Arts, on which they did begin.”
Robert HookeRobert Hooke Taking mathematics from the beginning of the world to the time when Newton lived, what he had done was much the better half.
Gottfried Wilhelm LeibnizGottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
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