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No man ever quite believes in any other man. One may believe in an idea absolutely, but not in a man. In the highest confidence there is always a flavor of doubt--a feeling, half instinctive and half logical, that, after all, the scoundrel may have something up his sleeve.

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
Feelings
Confidence
Scoundrels
May
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Ideas
Trust
Sleeves
Ever
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Skepticism
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Believe
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Logical
Always
Half
Believes
Scoundrel
Men
Idea
Absolutely
Sleeve

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Always remember this: If you don't attend the funerals of your friends, they will certainly not attend yours.
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Men are the only animals that devote themselves, day in and day out, to making one another unhappy. It is an art like any other. Its virtuosi are called altruists.
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Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
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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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On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
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The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.
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When I die, I shall be content to vanish into nothingness.... No show, however good, could conceivably be good forever I do not believe in immortality, and have no desire for it.
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I hate sports the way people who like sports hate common sense.
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One seldom discovers a true believer that is worth knowing.
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It is almost impossible for an Anglo-Saxon to write of sex without being dirty.
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The wholly manly man lacks the wit necessary to give objective form to his soaring and secret dreams, and the wholly womanly woman is apt to be too cynical a creature to dream at all.
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The average man gets his living by such depressing devices that boredom becomes a sort of natural state to him.
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In the main, there are two sorts of books: those that no one reads and those that no one ought to read.
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Confidence: The feeling that makes one believe a man, even when one knows that one would lie in his place
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Strike an average between what a woman thinks of her husband a month before she marries him and what she thinks of him a year afterward, and you will have the truth about him.
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Don't overestimate the decency of the human race.
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The genuine music lover may accept the carnal husk of opera to get at the kernel of actual music within, but that is no sign that he approves the carnal husk or enjoys gnawing through it.
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Every complex problem has a simple solution that doesn't work.
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No matter how much a woman loved a man, it would still give her a glow to see him commit suicide for her.
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If all the lawyers were hanged tomorrow, and their bones were sold to a mah jong factory, we'd all be freer and safer, and our taxes would be reduced by almost a half.
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