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There are no institutions in America: there are only fashions.

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
Fashions
Institutions
Fashion
America

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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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Men always try to make virtues of their weaknesses. Fear of death and fear of life both become piety.
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The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
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Women have simple tastes. They get pleasure out of the conversation of children in arms and men in love.
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The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.
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Congress consists of one-third, more or less, scoundrels two-thirds, more or less, idiots and three-thirds, more or less, poltroons.
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When I hear artists or authors making fun of businessmen, I think of a regiment in which the band makes fun of the cooks.
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It is a peculiarity of the American mind that it regards any excursion into the truth as an adventure into cynicism.
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Metaphysics is almost always an attempt to prove the incredible by an appeal to the unintelligible.
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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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No man is worthy of unlimited reliance-his treason, at best, only waits for sufficient temptation.
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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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Absence is the dark-room in which lovers develop negatives.
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If x is the population of the United States and y is the degree of imbecility of the average American, then democracy is the theory that x times y is less than y
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I have long been convinced that the idea of liberty is abhorrent to most human beings. What they want is security, not freedom. Thus it seldom causes any public indignation when an enterprising tyrant claps down on one of his enemies. To most men it seems a natural proceeding.
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The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear - fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety.
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Nine times out of ten, in the arts as in life, there is actually no truth to be discovered there is only error to be exposed.
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It is only doubt that creates.
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Richard Strauss--Old Home Week in Gomorrah
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The instant I reach Heaven, I'm going to speak to God very sharply.
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