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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.

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
Part
Uncomfortable
Even
Unhappy
People
Charity
Large
Honest
Humanitarianism
Upon
Altruism
Fact
Grounded
Facts
Perfectly

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A critic is a man who writes about things he doesn't like.
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Socialist: A man suffering from an overwhelming conviction to believe what is not true.
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I give you Chicago. It is not London and Harvard. It is not Paris and buttermilk. It is American in every chitling and sparerib. It is alive from snout to tail.
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The first Rotarian was the first man to call John the Baptist Jack.
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Without a doubt there are women who would vote intelligently. There are also men who knit socks beautifully.
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Men always try to make virtues of their weaknesses. Fear of death and fear of life both become piety.
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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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The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.
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Has the art of politics no apparent utility? Does it appear to be unqualifiedly ratty, raffish, sordid, obscene, and low down, andits salient virtuosi a gang of unmitigated scoundrels? Then let us not forget its high capacity to soothe and tickle the midriff, its incomparable services as a maker of entertainment.
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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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School teachers, taking them by and large, are probably the most ignorant and stupid class of men in the whole group of mental workers.
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There is in writing the constant joy of sudden discovery, of happy accident.
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Wife: one who is sorry she did it, but would undoubtedly do it again.
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Free speech is too dangerous to a democracy to be permitted
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