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Religion, after all, is nothing but an hypothesis framed to account for what is evidentially unaccounted for.

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
Framed
Hypothesis
Account
Accounts
Religion
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Psychotherapy is the theory that the patient will probably get well anyhow and is certainly a damn fool.
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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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A wealthy man is one who earns $100 a year more than his wife's sister's husband.
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It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull.
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The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.
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Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
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Wife: one who is sorry she did it, but would undoubtedly do it again.
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It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
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Some immemorial imbecilities have been added deliberately, on the ground that it is just as interesting to note how foolish men have been as to note how wise they have been.
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The most popular man under a democracy is not the most democratic man, but the most despotic man. The common folk delight in the exactions of such a man. They like him to boss them. Their natural gait is the goose step.
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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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A large part of altruism, even when it is perfectly honest, is grounded upon the fact that it is uncomfortable to have unhappy people about one.
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It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics or chemistry.
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If a sense of duty tortures a man, it also enables him to achieve prodigies.
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There is something even more valuable to civilization than wisdom, and that is character.
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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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