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Hanging one scoundrel, it appears, does not deter the next. Well, what of it? The first one is at least disposed of.

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
Freedom
Deter
Next
Scoundrel
Doe
Scoundrels
Wells
Disposed
Firsts
Hanging
Well
Appears
First
Democracy
Least

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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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It is surely no mere coincidence that the land of the emancipated and enthroned woman is also the land of canned soup, of canned pork and beans, of whole meals in cans, and of everything else ready made.
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The American people, North and South, went into the [Civil] war as citizens of their respective states, they came out as subjects ... what they thus lost they have never got back.
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Religion is so absurd that it comes close to imbecility.
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But I wonder where we will land if trial judges begin deciding that the fact that a man has committed an atrocious crime is proof sufficient that he is not responsible for his acts.
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No matter how much a woman loved a man, it would still give her a glow to see him commit suicide for her.
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The doctrine that the cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy is like saying that the cure of crime is more crime.
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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.
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Man is always looking for someone to boast to woman is always looking for a shoulder to put her head on.
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The fact that I have no remedy for all the sorrows of the world is no reason for my accepting yours. It simply supports the strong probability that yours is a fake.
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Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
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Free speech is too dangerous to a democracy to be permitted
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There are some people who read too much: The bibliobibuli.
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Our literature, despite several false starts that promised much, is chiefly remarkable, now as always, for its respectable mediocrity.
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Watching two women kiss is like watching two prizefighters shake hands.
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Happiness, like health, is probably also only a passing accident. For a moment or two the organism is irritated so little that it is not conscious of it for the duration of that moment it is happy. Thus a hog is always happier than a man, and a bacillus is happier than a hog
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I can't imagine a genuinely intelligent boy getting much out of college, even out of a good college, save it be a cynical habit of mind.
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Socialist: A man suffering from an overwhelming conviction to believe what is not true.
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Philosophy first constructs a scheme of happiness and then tries to fit the world to it.
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I'm ombibulous. I drink every known alcoholic drink and enjoy them all.
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