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Youth, though it may lack knowledge, is certainly not devoid of intelligence it sees through shams with sharp and terrible eyes.

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
May
Intelligence
Certainly
Youth
Terrible
Shams
Eyes
Devoid
Though
Sharp
Knowledge
Sees
Eye
Lack

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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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Truth would quickly cease to be stranger than fiction, once we got as used to it.
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Culture itself is neither education nor law-making: it is an atmosphere and a heritage.
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Socialist: A man suffering from an overwhelming conviction to believe what is not true.
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The physical business of writing is unpleasant to me, but the psychic satisfaction of discharging bad ideas in worse English makes me forget it.
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The seasick passenger on an ocean liner detests the good sailor who stalks past him 265 times a day grandly smoking a large, greasy cigar. In precisely the same way the democrat hates the man who is having a better time in the world. This is the origin of democracy. It is also the origin of Puritanism.
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Time is a great legalizer, even in the field of morals
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The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government they have only a talent for getting and holding office.
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I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind.
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It is the natural tendency of the ignorant to believe what is not true. In order to overcome that tendency it is not sufficient to exhibit the true it is also necessary to expose and denounce the false.
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Legend: A lie that has attained the dignity of age.
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Whenever A attempts by law to impose his moral standards upon B, A is most likely a scoundrel.
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The Public ... demands certainties ... But there are not certainties
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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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