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The saddest life is that of a political aspirant under democracy. His failure is ignominious and his success is disgraceful.

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
Disgraceful
Saddest
Failure
Democracy
Success
Political
Life
Ignominious
Aspirant

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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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There is nothing worse than an idle hour, with no occupation offering. People who have many such hours are simply animals waiting docilely for death. We all come to that state soon or late. It is the curse of senility.
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The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear - fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety.
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The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself.
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The only liberty an inferior man really cherishes is the liberty to quit work, stretch out in the sun, and scratch himself.
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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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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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Debussy--A pretty girl with one blue eye and one brown one.
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It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods.
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The curse of man, and the cause of nearly all his woe, is his stupendous capacity for believing the incredible.
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