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I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing.

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
Enjoy
Incomparably
Immensely
Idiotic
Amusing
Confess
Hence
Democracy

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The American people, I am convinced, really detest free speech. At the slightest alarm they are ready and eager to put it down.
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Man is a natural polygamist: he always has one woman leading him by the nose, and another hanging on to his coattails.
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I am one of the few goyim who have ever actually tackled the Talmud. I suppose you now expect me to add that it is a profound and noble work, worthy of hard study by all other goyims. Unhappily, my report must differ from this expectation. It seems to me, save for a few bright spots, to be quite indistinguishable from rubbish.
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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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Not by accident, you may be sure, do the Christian Scriptures make the father of knowledge a serpent - slimy, sneaking and abominable.
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The average man never really thinks from end to end of his life. The mental activity of such people is only a mouthing of clichés.
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I'm thoroughly convinced that editors don't help authors.
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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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If women believed in their husbands they would be a good deal happier and also a good deal more foolish.
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The trouble with Communism is the Communists, just as the trouble with Christianity is the Christians.
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Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time.
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Bridges would not be safer if only people who knew the proper definition of a real number were allowed to design them.
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Liberty and democracy are eternal enemies, and every one knows it who has ever given any sober reflection to the matter.
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There are men so philosophical that they can see humor in their own toothaches. But there has never lived a man so philosophical that he could see the toothache in his own humor.
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The first kiss is stolen by the man the last is begged by the woman.
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Unionism, seldom if ever, uses such powers as it has to ensure better work almost always it devotes a large part of that power to safeguard bad work.
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The essence of self-fulfillment and autonomous culture is an unshakable egotism.
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