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The argument that capital punishment degrades the state is moonshine, for if that were true then it would degrade the state to send men to war... The state, in truth, is degraded in its very nature: a few butcheries cannot do it any further damage.

H. L. Mencken

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H. L. Mencken
Age: 75 †
Born: 1880
Born: September 12
Died: 1956
Died: January 29
Autobiographer
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Historian
Journalist
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Literary Critic
Satirist
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Baltimore
Maryland
Henry Louis Mencken
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Punishment
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Moonshine
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Capital
True
Damage

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Before a man speaks it is always safe to assume that he is a fool. After he speaks, it is seldom necessary to assume it.
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One smart reader is worth a thousand boneheads.
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There comes a time in every man's life when he's consumed by the desire to spit on his palms, hoist the black flag and start cutting throats.
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Whenever a reporter is assigned to cover a Methodist conference, he comes home an atheist.
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The objection of the scandalmonger is not that she tells of racy doings, but that she pretends to be indignant about them.
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A large part of altruism, even when it is perfectly honest, is grounded upon the fact that it is uncomfortable to have unhappy people about one.
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I detest converts almost as much as I do missionaries.
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It is the mission of the pedagogue, not to make his pupils think, but to make them think right, and the more nearly his own mind pulsates with the great ebbs and flows of popular delusion and emotion, the more admirably he performs his function. He may be an ass, but that is surely no demerit in a man paid to make asses of his customers.
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The objection to a Communist always resolves itself into the fact that he is not a gentleman.
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All talk of winning the people by appealing to their intelligence, of conquering them by impeccable syllogism, is so much moonshine.
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In human history a moral victory is always a disaster, for it debauches and degrades both the victor and the vanquished.
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Complete masculinity and stupidity are often indistinguishable.
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The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth - that error and truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it has been cured of one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one.
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The most valuable of all human possessions, next to a superior and disdainful air, is the reputation of being well-to-do.
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The idea that the sole aim of punishment is to prevent crime is obviously grounded upon the theory that crime can be prevented, which is almost as dubious as the notion that poverty can be prevented.
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So few men are really worth knowing, that it seems a shameful waste to let an anthropoid prejudice stand in the way of free association with one who is.
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Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.
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The movies today are too rich to have any room for genuine artists. They produce a few passable craftsmen, but no artists. Can you imagine a Beethoven making $100, 000 a year?
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