H. L. Mencken ( 10 of 103 )
All I ask is equal freedom. When it is denied, as it always is, I take it anyhow.
All I ask is equal freedom. When it is denied, as it always is, I take it anyhow.
I believe there is a limit beyond which free speech cannot go, but it's a limit that's very seldom mentioned. read more
I believe there is a limit beyond which free speech cannot go, but it's a limit that's very seldom mentioned. It's the point where free speech begins to collide with the right to privacy. I don't think there are any other conditions to free speech. I've got a right to say and believe anything I please, but I haven't got a right to press it on anybody else. .... Nobody's got a right to be a nuisance to his neighbors.
We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the same sense and to the extent that we respect read more
We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the same sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.
The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation read more
The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.
The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, read more
The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.
Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.
Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.
Imagine the Creator as a low comedian, and at once the world becomes explicable.
Imagine the Creator as a low comedian, and at once the world becomes explicable.
We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his read more
We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.
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.
Writing books is certainly a most unpleasant occupation. It is lonesome, unsanitary, and maddening. Many authors go crazy.
Writing books is certainly a most unpleasant occupation. It is lonesome, unsanitary, and maddening. Many authors go crazy.
