H. L. Mencken

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and hence clamorous to be led to safety] read more

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and hence clamorous to be led to safety] by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.

I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs.

I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs.

It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone- that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows read more

It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone- that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows more than any man of, say, the Eighteenth Century, and is far more civilized. This assumption is quite erroneous...The great masses of men, even in this inspired republic, are precisely where the mob was at the dawn of history. They are ignorant, they are dishonest, they are cowardly, they are ignoble. They know little if anything that is worth knowing, and there is not the slightest sign of a natural desire among them to increase their knowledge.

We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense that we respect his theory that his wife read more

We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.