Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
H. L. MENCKENEvery decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
More H. L. Mencken Quotes
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A sense of humor always withers in the presence of the messianic delusion, like justice and the truth in front of patriotic passion.
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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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A church is a place in which gentlemen who have never been to Heaven brag about it to persons who will never get there.
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A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.
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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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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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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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For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
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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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Journalism is to politician as dog is to lamp-post.
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The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.
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The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.
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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.
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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 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. MENCKEN