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A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.

H. L. Mencken

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H. L. Mencken
Age: 75 †
Born: 1880
Born: September 12
Died: 1956
Died: January 29
Autobiographer
Essayist
Historian
Journalist
Linguist
Literary Critic
Satirist
Social Critic
Writer
Baltimore
Maryland
Henry Louis Mencken
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Religion
Evil
Penance
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Sunday
School
Spirituality
Children
Prison
Conscience
Parents

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I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious.
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The verdict of a jury is the a priori opinion of that juror who smokes the worst cigars.
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The most common of all follies is to believe in the palpably untrue.
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It is almost impossible for an Anglo-Saxon to write of sex without being dirty.
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A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.
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I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech - alike for the humblest man and the mightiest, and in the utmost freedom of conduct that is consistent with living in organized society.
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When we appropriate money from the public funds to pay for vaccinating a horde of negroes, we do not do it because we have any sympathy for them or because we crave their blessings, but simply because we don't want them to be falling ill of smallpox
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A man of active and resilient mind outwears his friendships just as certainly as he outwears his love affairs, his politics and his epistemology.
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I have long been convinced that the idea of liberty is abhorrent to most human beings. What they want is security, not freedom. Thus it seldom causes any public indignation when an enterprising tyrant claps down on one of his enemies. To most men it seems a natural proceeding.
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There are no institutions in America: there are only fashions.
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The music critic, Huneber, could never quite make up his mind about a new symphony until he had seen the composer's mistress.
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There are no dull subjects. There are only dull writers.
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