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The truth that survives is simply the lie that is pleasantest to believe.
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
Lying
Truth
Believe
Pleasantest
Survives
Survival
Simply
Belief
More quotes by H. L. Mencken
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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It is, indeed, one of the capital tragedies of youth-and youth is the time of real tragedy-that the young are thrown mainly with adults they do not quite respect.
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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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The truth is that Christian theology, like every other theology, is not only opposed to the scientific spirit it is also opposed to all other attempts at rational thinking.
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There are no institutions in America: there are only fashions.
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I know some who are constantly drunk on books as other men are drunk on whiskey.
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The motive of fear is the be-all and end-all of religion.
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Friendship is a common belief in the same fallacies, mountebanks and hobgoblins.
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If the American people really tire of democracy and want to make a trial of Fascism, I shall be the last person to object. But if that is their mood, then they had better proceed toward their aim by changing the Constitution and not by forgetting it.
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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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Sometimes the idiots outvote the sensible people.
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People constantly speak of 'the government' doing this or that, as they might speak of God doing it. But the government is really nothing but a group of men, and usually they are very inferior men. They may have some better man working for them, but they themselves are seldom worthy of any respect.
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Hygiene is the corruption of medicine by morality.
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The American people, I am convinced, really detest free speech. At the slightest alarm they are ready and eager to put it down.
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The verdict of a jury is the a priori opinion of that juror who smokes the worst cigars.
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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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Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time.
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The essence of self-fulfillment and autonomous culture is an unshakable egotism.
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Government, like any other organism, refuses to acquiesce in its own extinction. This refusal, of course, involves the resistance to any effort to diminish its powers and prerogatives.
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A national political campaign is better than the best circus ever heard of, with a mass baptism and a couple of hangings thrown in.
H. L. Mencken
