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...no man of genuinely superior intelligence has ever been an actor. Even supposing a young man of appreciable mental powers to be lured upon the stage, as philosophers are occasionally lured into bordellos, his mind would be inevitably and almost immediately destroyed by the gaudy nonsense issuing from his mouth every night.

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
Appreciable
Men
Upon
Destroyed
Occasionally
Lured
Night
Mouths
Superior
Issuing
Young
Mental
Superiors
Gaudy
Ever
Intelligence
Nonsense
Even
Actor
Immediately
Supposing
Every
Stage
Powers
Genuinely
Mind
Almost
Philosopher
Philosophers
Would
Actors
Mouth
Inevitably

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The most curious social convention of the great age in which we live is the one to the effect that religious opinions should be respected.
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The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.
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He sailed through American history like a steel ship loaded with monoliths of granite.
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[Referring to FDR] If he became convinced tomorrow that coming out for cannibalism would get him the votes he needs so sorely, he would begin fattening a missionary in the White House yard come Wednesday.
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A skeptic as to all ideas, including especially my own, I have never suffered a pang when the ideas of some other imbecile prevailed.
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When we appropriate money from the public funds to pay for vaccinating a horde of negroes, we do not do it because we have any sympathy for them or because we crave their blessings, but simply because we don't want them to be falling ill of smallpox
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High-toned humanitarians constantly overestimate the sufferings of those they sympathize with.
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Clergyman: A ticket speculator outside the gates of Heaven.
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There are no dull subjects. There are only dull writers.
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The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
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The movies today are too rich to have any room for genuine artists. They produce a few passable craftsmen, but no artists. Can you imagine a Beethoven making $100, 000 a year?
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It is the fundamental theory of all the more recent American law...that the average citizen is half-witted, and hence not to be trusted to either his own devices or his own thoughts.
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Jury - A group of 12 people, who, having lied to the judge about their health, hearing, and business engagements, have failed to fool him.
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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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Say what you will about the ten commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.
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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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The essence of self-fulfillment and autonomous culture is an unshakable egotism.
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Religion deserves no more respect than a pile of garbage.
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Never argue with a man whose job depends on not being convinced.
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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.
H. L. Mencken