H. L. Mencken on democracy
H. L. Mencken76 quotes“Imagine the Creator as a low comedian, and at once the world becomes explicable.”
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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.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken Once a woman passes a certain point in intelligence she finds it almost impossible to get a husband: she simply cannot go on listening without snickering.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken The American people, North and South, went into the [Civil] war as citizens of their respective states, they came out as subjects … what they thus lost they have never got back.
H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken No one in this world, so far as I know – and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me – has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.
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 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. 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
Original quotes
From our community writers
Love is mostly easy at night, it is morning you got to learn about.
Leon MarshLeon Marsh You can find beauty in the darkest of places. Be the light, my love. Bring smiles to their faces.
Aletheia LiolaAletheia Liola This fearless heart is trapped between these anxious walls of my worried mind.
CindyCindy Don’t push away your emotions too hard, remember they can push back if held for too long.
SargamSargam To choose a plain life, I choose neither to lose and nor do I gain, If happiness is not in my destiny, I refuse to accept pain.
Astha SrivastavaAstha Srivastava Steal back your heart – self-love.
Mona-LiseMona-Lise Hope is the only thing that keeps us alive. Without hope there can be no you or I.
BelaBela An open mind opens our hearts to have compassion for others.
Elaine HaysElaine Hays
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Rush LimbaughRush Limbaugh When an individual stands against the government and wins, it’s not the victory of the individual but it’s the victory of the democracy.
Kangana RanautKangana Ranaut The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.
Charles BukowskiCharles Bukowski We cannot re-elect a president who does not believe in democracy.
Bernie SandersBernie Sanders Unprecedented crises demand unprecedented action.
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