Quote

A mood of constructive criticism being upon me, I propose forthwith that the method of choosing legislators now prevailing in the United States be abandoned and that the method used in choosing juries be substituted. That is to say, I propose that the men who make our laws be chosen by chance and against will of all the rest of us, as now.

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
Used
Method
Prevailing
States
Criticism
Jury
Make
Laws
Propose
Men
Rest
Constructive
Law
Choosing
Forthwith
Chance
Abandoned
Juries
Upon
Mood
Substituted
United
Chosen
Legislators

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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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The music critic, Huneber, could never quite make up his mind about a new symphony until he had seen the composer's mistress.
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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.
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The believing mind is externally impervious to evidence. The most that can be accomplished with it is to induce it to substitute one delusion for another. It rejects all overt evidence as wicked.
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The most popular man under a democracy is not the most democratic man, but the most despotic man. The common folk delight in the exactions of such a man. They like him to boss them. Their natural gait is the goose step.
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There is only one honest impulse at the bottom of Puritanism, and that is the impulse to punish the man with a superior capacity for happiness.
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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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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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Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
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Only a jackass ever talks over his affairs with a woman, whether she be his sweetheart, wife, or sister, or mother.
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A national political campaign is better than the best circus ever heard of, with a mass baptism and a couple of hangings thrown in.
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He slept more than any other president, whether by day or by night. Nero fiddled, but Coolidge only snored.
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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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Journalism is to politician as dog is to lamp-post.
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Adultery is the application of democracy to love.
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When somebody says it’s not about the money, it’s about the money.
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Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone might be looking.
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Watching two women kiss is like watching two prizefighters shake hands.
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No professional politician is ever actually in favor of public economy. It is his implacable enemy, and he knows it. All professional politicians are dedicated wholeheartedly to waste and corruption. They are the enemies of every decent man.
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Unionism, seldom if ever, uses such powers as it has to ensure better work almost always it devotes a large part of that power to safeguard bad work.
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