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The only kind of freedom that the mob can imagine is freedom to annoy and oppress its betters, and that is precisely the kind that we mainly have.

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
Equality
Imagine
Freedom
Betters
Kind
Oppress
Annoy
Mainly
Annoying
Precisely

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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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The intellectual heritage of the race belongs to the minority.
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Truth - Something somehow discreditable to someone.
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When you sympathize with a married woman you either make two enemies or gain one wife and one friend.
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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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The argument that capital punishment degrades the state is moonshine, for if that were true then it would degrade the state to send men to war... The state, in truth, is degraded in its very nature: a few butcheries cannot do it any further damage.
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The aim of New Deals is to exterminate the class of creditors and thrust all men into that of debtors. It is like trying to breedcattle with all cows and no bulls.
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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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One smart reader is worth a thousand boneheads.
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Watching two women kiss is like watching two prizefighters shake hands.
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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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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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As long as you represent me as praising alcohol I shall not complain.
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The only way that a government can provide for jobs for all citizens is by deciding what every man should do.
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The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal. Some of their most esteemed inventions have no other apparent purpose - for example, the dinner party of more than two, the epic poem, and the science of metaphysics.
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Culture itself is neither education nor law-making: it is an atmosphere and a heritage.
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I well recall my horror when I heard for the first time, of a journalist who had laid in a pair of what were then called bicycle pants and taken to golf it was as if I had encountered a studhorse with his hair done up in frizzes, and pink bowknots peeking out of them. It seemed, in some vague way, ignominious, and even a bit indelicate.
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Save among politicians it is no longer necessary for any educated American to profess belief in Thirteenth Century ideas
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The first Rotarian was the first man to call John the Baptist Jack.
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The average woman must inevitably view her actual husband with a certain disdain he is anything but her ideal. In consequence, she cannot help feeling that her children are cruelly handicapped by the fact that he is their father.
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