H. L. Mencken

And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are read more

And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are maintained in order to bring this uniformity up to the highest possible point. A school is a hopper into which children are heaved while they are still young and tender; therein they are pressed into certain standard shapes and covered from head to heels with official rubber-stamps.

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act even read more

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act even when it has worked.

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to read more

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule--and both commonly succeed, and are right.

All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not read more

All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them.

Morality is the theory that every h uman act must be either right or wrong, and that 99 % of read more

Morality is the theory that every h uman act must be either right or wrong, and that 99 % of them are wrong.