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The most curious social convention of the great age in which we live is the one to the effect that religious opinions should be respected.

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
Opinion
Convention
Religious
Respected
Age
Conventions
Religion
Opinions
Social
Curious
Live
Effect
Great
Atheism
Effects
Libertine

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When you sympathize with a married woman you either make two enemies or gain one wife and one friend.
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It is a peculiarity of the American mind that it regards any excursion into the truth as an adventure into cynicism.
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Governments, whatever their pretensions otherwise, try to preserve themselves by holding the individual down ... Government itself, indeed, may be reasonably defined as a conspiracy against him. Its one permanent aim, whatever its form, is to hobble him sufficiently to maintain itself.
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Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
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Alimony - the ransom that the happy pay to the devil.
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The most satisfying and ecstatic faith is almost purely agnostic. It trusts absolutely without professing to know at all.
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The chief contribution of Protestantism to human thought is its massive proof that God is a bore.
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I detest converts almost as much as I do missionaries.
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A man is called a good fellow for doing things which, if done by a woman, would land her in a lunatic asylum.
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There are no ugly cigars, only ugly smokers.
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The smallest atom of truth represents some man's bitter toil and agony for every ponderable chunk of it there is a brave truth-seeker's grave upon some lonely ash-dump and a soul roasting in hell.
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