H. L. Mencken Quotes - Page 8

• Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.

  H. L. Mencken

  Wise, Freedom, Men

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• The only time you have a free press is when you own one.

  H. L. Mencken

  Free Press, Presses, Only Time

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• God must love the rich or he wouldn't divide so much among so few of them.

  H. L. Mencken

  Wealth, Rich, Divides

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• There is something even more valuable to civilization than wisdom, and that is character.

  H. L. Mencken

  Character, Civilization, Religion

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• Man weeps to think that he will die so soon; woman, that she was born so long ago.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Thinking, Long Ago

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• A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, Democracy, Politics

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• The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Office, Political

  "Charting the Candidates '72". Book by Ronald Van Doren, p. 7, 1972.

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• Whenever A annoys or injures B on the pretense of saving or improving X, A is a scoundrel.

  H. L. Mencken

  Saving, Annoying, Scoundrels

  Newspaper Days: 1899 - 1906 ch. 2 (1941)

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• The essence of science is that it is always willing to abandon a given idea for a better one; the essence of theology is that it holds its truths to be eternal and immutable.

  H. L. Mencken

  Essence, Ideas, Religion

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• I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war on liberty, and that the democratic government is at least as bad as any of the other forms.

  H. L. Mencken

  War, Believe, Government

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• Alimony - the ransom that the happy pay to the devil.

  H. L. Mencken

  Marriage, Devil, Ransom

  A Little Book in C Major ch. 6 (1916)

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• Equality before the law is probably forever unattainable. It is a noble ideal, but it can never be realized, for what men value in this world is not rights but privileges.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Rights, Law

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• I've made it a rule never to drink by daylight and never to refuse a drink after dark.

  H. L. Mencken

  Food, Drinking, Dark

  New York Post 18 Sept. 1945

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• God is a Republican, and Santa Claus is a Democrat.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Humorous, Party

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• No matter how long he lives, no man ever becomes as wise as the average woman of forty-eight.

  H. L. Mencken

  Wise, Wisdom, Women

  H.L. Mencken “A little book in C major”, Рипол Классик

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• Courtroom : A place where Jesus Christ and Judas Iscariot would be equals, with the betting odds favoring Judas.

  H. L. Mencken

  Jesus, Odds, America

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• [Texas is] the place where there are the most cows and the least milk and the most rivers and the least water in them, and where you can look the farthest to see the least.

  H. L. Mencken

  Texas, Rivers, Water

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• The great secret of happiness in love is to be glad that the other fellow married her.

  H. L. Mencken

  Love Is, Secret, Married

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• Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Crazy, Silly

  A Book of Burlesques ch. 11 (1920)

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• The State is not force alone. It depends upon the credulity of man quite as much as upon his docility. Its aim is not merely to make him obey, but also to make him want to obey.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Want, States

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.315, Knopf

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• Those who can't teach - administrate. Those who can't administrate - go into politics.

  H. L. Mencken

  Teach

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• Congress consists of one-third, more or less, scoundrels; two-thirds, more or less, idiots; and three-thirds, more or less, poltroons.

  H. L. Mencken

  Two, Three, Idiot

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.622, Vintage

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• The only kind of freedom that the mob can imagine is freedom to annoy and oppress its betters, and that is precisely the kind that we mainly have.

  H. L. Mencken

  Equality, Kind, Annoying

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• I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind - that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.

  H. L. Mencken

  Believe, Thinking, Religion

  "What I Believe". "The Forum", 84, (p. 139), September 1930.

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• Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, Justice, Bears

  "Prejudices: Third Series".

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