H. L. Mencken Quotes - Page 32

• A government at bottom is nothing more than a group of men, and as a practical matter most of them are inferior men. ... Yet these nonentities, by the intellectual laziness of men in general ... are generally obeyed as a matter of duty (and) assumed to have a kind of wisdom that is superior to ordinary wisdom.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Intellectual, Groups

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.69, Knopf

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• I believe in only one thing and that thing is human liberty.

  H. L. Mencken

  Believe, Liberty, Humans

  "Letters of H. L. Mencken". Book by Guy J. Forgue, 1961.

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• The difference between the smartest dog and the stupidest man - say a Tennessee Holy Roller - is really very small.

  H. L. Mencken

  Dog, Men, Differences

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.412, Knopf

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• Man, at his best, remains a sort of one-lunged animal, never completely rounded and perfect, as a cockroach, say, is perfect.

  H. L. Mencken

  Animal, Men, Perfect

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.19, Vintage

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• No sane man objects to palpable lies about him; what he objects to is damaging facts.

  H. L. Mencken

  Lying, Men, Facts

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• People constantly speak of 'the government' doing this or that, as they might speak of God doing it. But the government is really nothing but a group of men, and usually they are very inferior men. They may have some better man working for them, but they themselves are seldom worthy of any respect.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, People, Political

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• The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal. Some of their most esteemed inventions have no other apparent purpose - for example, the dinner party of more than two, the epic poem, and the science of metaphysics.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Party, Humor

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.68, Knopf

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• No one hates his job so heartily as a farmer.

  H. L. Mencken

  Jobs, Hate, Work

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• The extortions and oppressions of government will go on so long as such bare fraudulence deceives and disarms the victims; so long as they are ready to swallow the immemorial official theory that protesting against the stealings of the archbishop's secretary's nephew's mistress' illegitimate son is a sin against the Holy Ghost.

  H. L. Mencken

  Son, Government, Long

  H.L. MENCKEN (1958). “PREJUDICES A SELECTION”

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• Law and its instrument, government, are necessary to the peace and safety of all of us, but all of us, unless we live the lives of mud turtles, frequently find them arrayed against us.

  H. L. Mencken

  Government, Turtles, Law

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• The chief business of the nation, as a nation, is the setting up of heroes, mainly bogus.

  H. L. Mencken

  Hero, Chiefs, Settings

  H. L. Mencken (2009). “Prejudices: Third Series”, p.20, Cosimo, Inc.

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• The dying man doesn't struggle much and he isn't much afraid. As his alkalies give out he succumbs to a blest stupidity. His mindfogs. His will power vanishes. He submits decently. He scarcely gives a damn.

  H. L. Mencken

  Death, Struggle, Men

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.139, Vintage

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• A critic is a man who writes about things he doesn't like.

  H. L. Mencken

  Writing, Men, Critics

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• Philadelphia is the most pecksniffian of American cities, and thus probably leads the world.

  H. L. Mencken

  Cities, Philadelphia, World

  H. L. Mencken (2010). “The American Language: A Preliminary Inquiry Into the Development of English in the United States”, p.152, Cosimo, Inc.

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• What I admire most in any man is a serene spirit, a steady freedom from moral indignation, and all-embracing tolerance--in brief,what is commonly called sportsmanship.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, Men, Tolerance

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.163, Vintage

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• The average man gets his living by such depressing devices that boredom becomes a sort of natural state to him.

  H. L. Mencken

  Life, Depressing, Men

  H. L. Mencken (2015). “In Defense of Women: Human Sexuality”, p.49, 谷月社

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• All successful newspapers are ceaselessly querulous and bellicose. They never defend anyone or anything if they can help it; if the job is forced on them, they tackle it by denouncing someone or something else.

  H. L. Mencken

  Jobs, Successful, Helping

  "Prejudices, First Series" by H. L. Mencken, (Ch. 13), 1919.

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• Poverty is a soft pedal upon the branches of human activity, not excepting the spiritual.

  H. L. Mencken

  Spiritual, Branches, Poverty

  "A Book of Prefaces". Book by H. L. Mencken, 1917.

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• It is the mission of the pedagogue, not to make his pupils think, but to make them think right, and the more nearly his own mind pulsates with the great ebbs and flows of popular delusion and emotion, the more admirably he performs his function. He may be an ass, but that is surely no demerit in a man paid to make asses of his customers.

  H. L. Mencken

  Teaching, Men, Thinking

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.316, Vintage

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• After all, all he did was string together a lot of old, well-known quotations.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Book, Writing

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• I can't imagine a genuinely intelligent boy getting much out of college, even out of a good college, save it be a cynical habit of mind.

  H. L. Mencken

  Intelligent, Boys, College

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• I never smoked a cigarette until I was nine.

  H. L. Mencken

  Literature, Nine, Cigarette

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• The common notion that free speech prevails in the United States always makes me laugh.

  H. L. Mencken

  Laughing, United States, Speech

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Diary of H. L. Mencken”, p.635, Vintage

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• One does not arise from such a book as Sister Carrie with a smirk of satisfaction; one leaves it infinitely touched.

  H. L. Mencken

  Sister, Book, Smirk

  H.L. Mencken (1917). “A book of prefaces”, p.98, Рипол Классик

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• A metaphysician is one who, when you remark that twice two makes four, demands to know what you mean by twice, what by two, what by makes, and what by four. For asking such questions metaphysicians are supported in oriental luxury in the universities, and respected as educated and intelligent men.

  H. L. Mencken

  Philosophy, Mean, Intelligent

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