H. L. Mencken Quotes - Page 5

• It [the State] has taken on a vast mass of new duties and responsibilities; it has spread out its powers until they penetrate to every act of the citizen, however secret; it has begun to throw around its operations the high dignity and impeccability of a State religion; its agents become a separate and superior caste, with authority to bind and loose, and their thumbs in every pot. But it still remains, as it was in the beginning, the common enemy of all well-disposed, industrious and decent men.

  H. L. Mencken

  Taken, Responsibility, Men

  51 Copy quote

• Elections are futures markets in stolen property.

  H. L. Mencken

  Libertarian, Election, Stolen

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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.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Differences, Doe

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.397, Knopf

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• Genius: the ability to prolong one's childhood.

  H. L. Mencken

  Childhood, Genius, Ability

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• When fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.

  H. L. Mencken

  Peace, War, Limits

  "The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations" edited by Antony Jay, 1996.

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• The older I get the more I admire and crave competence, just simple competence, in any field from adultery to zoology.

  H. L. Mencken

  Simple, Fields, Adultery

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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.

  H. L. Mencken

  Time, Freedom, Fighting

  "Shut Down Chick-fil-A Properly" by James Peron, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 25, 2012.

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• And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are maintained in order to bring this uniformity up to the highest possible point. A school is a hopper into which children are heaved while they are still young and tender; therein they are pressed into certain standard shapes and covered from head to heels with official rubber-stamps.

  H. L. Mencken

  Children, School, Thinking

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• The intelligent, like the unintelligent, are responsive to propaganda.

  H. L. Mencken

  Intelligent, Propaganda, Unintelligent

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• I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, Believe, Men

  "Why Liberty?". Chicago Tribune, January 30, 1927.

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• When a new source of taxation is found it never means, in practice, that the old source is abandoned. It merely means that the politicians have two ways of milking the taxpayer where they had one before.

  H. L. Mencken

  Mean, Practice, Two

  59 Copy quote

• People say we need religion when what they really mean is we need police.

  H. L. Mencken

  Atheist, Mean, People

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• My belief in free speech is so profound that I am seldom tempted to deny it to the other fellow. Nor do I make any effort to differentiate between the other fellow right and that other fellow wrong, for I am convinced that free speech is worth nothing unless it includes a full franchise to be foolish and even...malicious.

  H. L. Mencken

  Profound, Effort, Speech

  H.L. Mencken (2011). “My Life as Author and Editor”, p.29, Vintage

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• We suffer most when the White House busts with ideas.

  H. L. Mencken

  Ideas, White, House

  17 Copy quote

• All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Essence, Conspiracy

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.145, Vintage

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• The ideal Government of all reflective men, from Aristotle onward, is one which lets the individual alone - one which barely escapes being no government at all.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Liberty, Libertarian

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.146, Vintage

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• The cynics are right nine times out of ten.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Witty, Time

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• The legislature, like the executive, has ceased to be even the creature of the people: it is the creature of pressure groups, and most of them, it must be manifest, are of dubious wisdom and even more dubious honesty. Laws are no longer made by a rational process of public discussion; they are made by a process of blackmail and intimidation, and they are executed in the same manner. The typical lawmaker of today is a man wholly devoid of principle...

  H. L. Mencken

  Honesty, Men, Law

  27 Copy quote

• Never underestimate the booberie of the booboisie.

  H. L. Mencken

  Underestimate, Never Underestimate

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• It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Witty, Humorous

  49 Copy quote

• Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop.

  H. L. Mencken

  Love, Relationship, Anniversary

  195 Copy quote

• Justice is what you get when you run out of money.

  H. L. Mencken

  Running, Justice

  8 Copy quote

• It is the natural tendency of the ignorant to believe what is not true. In order to overcome that tendency it is not sufficient to exhibit the true; it is also necessary to expose and denounce the false.

  H. L. Mencken

  Believe, Order, Ignorant

  "The American Mercury" Magazine, May 1926.

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• Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.

  H. L. Mencken

  Liberty, Auctions, Politics

  "Prejudices: First Series". Book by H. L. Mencken, 1919.

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• Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Liberty, Arbitrary

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

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