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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.

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
Overcoming
Exhibit
False
Exhibits
Necessary
Expose
Natural
Tendency
True
Tendencies
Order
Overcome
Also
Sufficient
Believe
Ignorant
Denounce

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If a sense of duty tortures a man, it also enables him to achieve prodigies.
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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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I think the Negro people should feel secure enough by now to face a reasonable ridicule without terror. I am unalterably opposed to all efforts to put down free speech, whatever the excuse.
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There are some people who read too much: The bibliobibuli.
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The theatre, when all is said and done, is not life in miniature, but life enormously magnified, life hideously exaggerated.
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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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Osteopath--One who argues that all human ills are caused by the pressure of hard bone upon soft tissue. The proof of his theory isto be found in the heads of those who believe it.
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Popularity--The capacity for listening sympathetically when men boast of their wives and women complain of their husbands.
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Socialist: A man suffering from an overwhelming conviction to believe what is not true.
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Women always excel men in that sort of wisdom which comes from experience. To be a woman is in itself a terrible experience.
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I have long been convinced that the idea of liberty is abhorrent to most human beings. What they want is security, not freedom. Thus it seldom causes any public indignation when an enterprising tyrant claps down on one of his enemies. To most men it seems a natural proceeding.
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If experience teaches us anything at all, it teaches us this: that a good politician, under democracy, is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.
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The average schoolmaster is and always must be essentially an ass, for how can one imagine an intelligent man engaging in so puerile an avocation.
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What restrains us from killing is partly fear of punishment, partly moral scruple, and partly what may be described as a sense of humor
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Hanging one scoundrel, it appears, does not deter the next. Well, what of it? The first one is at least disposed of.
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Next to the semi-colon, quotation marks seem to be the chief butts of reformatory ardor.
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It is only doubt that creates.
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Our whole practical government is grounded in mob psychology and the Boobus Americanus will follow any command that promises to make him safer.
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Experience is a poor guide to man, and is seldom followed. What really teaches a man is not experience, but observation.
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