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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.

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
Sold
Jong
Lawyer
Hanged
Bones
Freer
Taxes
Safer
Tomorrow
Factory
Almost
Lawyers
Half
Reduced
Would
Factories

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People constantly speak of 'the government' doing this or that, as they might speak of God doing it. But the government is really nothing but a group of men, and usually they are very inferior men. They may have some better man working for them, but they themselves are seldom worthy of any respect.
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No one hates his job so heartily as a farmer.
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Man weeps to think that he will die so soon woman, that she was born so long ago.
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The objection to Puritans is not that they try to make us think as they do, but that they try to make us do as they think.
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Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.
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When fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.
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The most common of all follies is to believe in the palpably untrue.
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Why do men delight in work? Fundamentally, I suppose, because there is a sense of relief and pleasure in getting something done - a kind of satisfaction not unlike that which a hen enjoys on laying an egg.
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The average schoolmaster is and always must be essentially an ass, for how can one imagine an intelligent man engaging in so puerile an avocation.
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