Freedom of press is limited to those who own one.
H. L. MENCKENEvery decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
More H. L. Mencken Quotes
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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.
H. L. MENCKEN -
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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All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him.
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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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The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself.
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On one issue, at least, men and women agree. They both distrust women.
H. 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.
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The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
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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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An idealist is one who, on noticing that roses smell better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.
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Journalism is to politician as dog is to lamp-post.
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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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Always remember this: If you don’t attend the funerals of your friends, they will certainly not attend yours.
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You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.
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A church is a place in which gentlemen who have never been to Heaven brag about it to persons who will never get there.
H. L. MENCKEN






