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Law and its instrument, government, are necessary to the peace and safety of all of us, but all of us, unless we live the lives of mud turtles, frequently find them arrayed against us.
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
Law
Frequently
Peace
Voting
Lives
Instrument
Government
Instruments
Find
Safety
Live
Necessary
Arrayed
Unless
Turtles
Liberty
Mud
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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 most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.
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To the man with an ear for verbal delicacies- the man who searches painfully for the perfect word, and puts the way of saying a thing above the thing said - there is in writing the constant joy of sudden discovery, of happy accident.
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The wholly manly man lacks the wit necessary to give objective form to his soaring and secret dreams, and the wholly womanly woman is apt to be too cynical a creature to dream at all.
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The war on privilege will never end. Its next grat campaign will be against the special privileges of the underprivileged.
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The intelligent, like the unintelligent, are responsive to propaganda.
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The music critic, Huneber, could never quite make up his mind about a new symphony until he had seen the composer's mistress.
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Mankind has failed miserably in its effort to devise a rational system of government. [...] The art of government is the exclusive possession of quacks and frauds. It has been so since the earliest days, and it will probably remain so until the end of time.
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The essence of science is that it is always willing to abandon a given idea for a better one the essence of theology is that it holds its truths to be eternal and immutable.
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The two main ideas that run through all of my writing, whether it be literary criticism or political polemic are these: I am strong in favor of liberty and I hate fraud.
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The motive of fear is the be-all and end-all of religion.
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Hamlet has been played by 5,000 actors, no wonder he is crazy.
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Better than the rest of us, they [the Jews] sensed what was ahead for their people.
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The basic fact about human existence is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not so much a war as an endless standing in line.
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Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man.
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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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When women kiss it always reminds one of prize fighters shaking hands.
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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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A man of active and resilient mind outwears his friendships just as certainly as he outwears his love affairs, his politics and his epistemology.
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A great literature is thus chiefly the product of doubting and inquiring minds in revolt against the immovable certainties of the nation.
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