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It is not materialism that is the chief curse of the world, as pastors teach, but idealism. Men get into trouble by taking their visions and hallucinations too seriously.

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
Men
Chief
World
Chiefs
Curse
Pastors
Seriously
Hallucinations
Taking
Visions
Trouble
Idealism
Vision
Materialism
Teach
Pastor

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To be in love is merely to be in a state of perceptual anesthesia - to mistake an ordinary young woman for a goddess.
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The intelligent, like the unintelligent, are responsive to propaganda.
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I give you Chicago. It is not London and Harvard. It is not Paris and buttermilk. It is American in every chitling and sparerib. It is alive from snout to tail.
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Every complex problem has a simple solution that doesn't work.
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A dull, dark, depressing day in Winter: the whole world looks like a Methodist church at Wednesday night prayer meeting.
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No man ever quite believes in any other man. One may believe in an idea absolutely, but not in a man. In the highest confidence there is always a flavor of doubt--a feeling, half instinctive and half logical, that, after all, the scoundrel may have something up his sleeve.
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For it is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together.
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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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Historian: an unsuccessful novelist.
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Men always try to make virtues of their weaknesses. Fear of death and fear of life both become piety.
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The truth that survives is simply the lie that is pleasantest to believe.
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Whenever a reporter is assigned to cover a Methodist conference, he comes home an atheist.
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Never drink if you've got any work to do. Never.
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Living with a dog is easy- like living with an idealist.
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