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. MENCKENDemocracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.
More H. L. Mencken Quotes
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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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Journalism is to politician as dog is to lamp-post.
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The ideal way to get rid of any infectious disease would be to shoot instantly every person who comes down with it.
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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.
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The kind of man who demands that government enforce his ideas is always the kind whose ideas are idiotic.
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The final test of truth is ridicule. Very few dogmas have ever faced it and survived.
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Socialist: A man suffering from an overwhelming conviction to believe what is not true.
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A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.
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When somebody says it’s not about the money, it’s about the money.
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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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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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Imagine the Creator as a low comedian, and at once the world becomes explicable.
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Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.
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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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Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
H. L. MENCKEN