Free speech is too dangerous to a democracy to be permitted.
H. L. MENCKENUnder democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule—and both commonly succeed, and are right.
More H. L. Mencken Quotes
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The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.
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On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
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For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
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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.
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What men value in this world is not rights but privileges.
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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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When fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.
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Sometimes the idiots outvote the sensible people.
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The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear – fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety.
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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.
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Most people want security in this world, not liberty.
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There are two kinds of Europeans: The smart ones, and those who stayed behind.
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The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God’s children, but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil.
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Imagine the Creator as a low comedian, and at once the world becomes explicable.
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On one issue, at least, men and women agree. They both distrust women.
H. L. MENCKEN