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The Jews fastened their religion upon the Western world, not because it was more reasonable than the religions of their contemporaries - as a matter of fact, it was vastly less reasonable than many of them - but because it was far more poetical.

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
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Literary Critic
Satirist
Social Critic
Writer
Baltimore
Maryland
Henry Louis Mencken
Many
Western
Fastened
World
Atheism
Poetical
Upon
Contemporaries
Less
Vastly
Religion
Religions
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Jews
Facts
Jew
Matter
Reasonable

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Socialist: A man suffering from an overwhelming conviction to believe what is not true.
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A politician normally prospers under democracy in proportion ... as he excels in the invention of imaginary perils and imaginary defenses against them.
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The editors are committed to nothing save this: to keep common sense as fast as they can, to belabor sham as agreeably as possible, to give civilized entertainment.
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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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I know of no human being who has a better time than an eager and energetic young reporter.
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A man is called a good fellow for doing things which, if done by a woman, would land her in a lunatic asylum.
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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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There are no institutions in America: there are only fashions.
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Why writers write I do not know. As well ask why a hen lays an egg or why a cow stands patiently while an underprivileged farmer burglarizes her.
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Liberty is of small value to the lower third of humanity. They greatly prefer security, which means protection by some class above them. They are always in favor of despots who promise to feed them. 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 common notion that free speech prevails in the United States always makes me laugh.
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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 only really respectable Protestants are the fundamentalists. Unfortunately, they are also palpable idiots.
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A sense of humor always withers in the presence of the messianic delusion, like justice and the truth in front of patriotic passion.
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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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There is something even more valuable to civilization than wisdom, and that is character.
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Every man is his own hell.
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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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The war on privilege will never end. Its next grat campaign will be against the special privileges of the underprivileged.
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A man always blames the woman who fools him. In the same way he blames the door he walks into in the dark.
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