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Quote by H. L. Mencken

“If what I may believe - about gall-stones, the Constitution, castor oil, or God - is conditioned by law, then I am not a free man.”

Quote by H. L. Mencken

Book:Mencken Chrestomathy

Work

Mencken Chrestomathy

This book compiles a selection of writings by the American journalist, critic, and satirist H.L. Mencken, showcasing his wit and insight on various subjects including politics, culture, and society. more

Author

H. L. Mencken was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. Born on September 12, 1880, and passing away on January 29, 1956, Mencken is renowned for his significant contributions to American culture and language, particularly through his satirical essays and critical analyses of the American establishment. more

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“Liberty is of small value to the lower third of humanity. They greatly prefer security, which means protection by some class above them. They are always in favor of despots who promise to feed them. The only liberty an inferior man really cherishes is the liberty to quit work, stretch out in the sun, and scratch himself.”

Men Mean Values Humanity Liberty Class Sun Security Promise Thirds Protection Favors Quitting Cherish Inferiors Scratches Despots

Book:Minority Report

Source: Minority Report

“Never drink if you've got any work to do. Never.”

Author:H. L. Mencken

“Never underestimate the booberie of the booboisie.”

Underestimate Never Underestimate

Author:H. L. Mencken

“No democratic delusion is more fatuous than that which holds that all men are capable of reason, and hence susceptible to conversion by evidence. If religions depended upon evidence for their prolongation, then all of them would collapse.”

Ifs Men Reason Capable Evidence Democratic Conversion Delusion Collapse Susceptible

Book:Mencken Chrestomathy

Source: Mencken Chrestomathy

“No government is ever really in favor of so-called civil rights. It always tries to whittle them down. They are preserved under all governments, insofar as they survive at all, by special classes of fanatics, often highly dubious.”

Trying Government Class Rights Special Favors Civil Rights Fanatics Dubious

Author:H. L. Mencken

“Poetry is a comforting piece of fiction set to more or less lascivious music.”

Fiction Pieces Poetry Is Comforting

Book:Mencken Chrestomathy

Source: Mencken Chrestomathy

“[Science] must be amoral by its very nature: The minute it begins separating facts into the two categories of good ones and bad ones it ceases to be science and becomes a mere nuisance, like theology.”

Two Facts Minutes Mere Cease Theology Categories Separating Nuisance

Author:H. L. Mencken

“[Texas is] the place where there are the most cows and the least milk and the most rivers and the least water in them, and where you can look the farthest to see the least.”

Looks Water Rivers Texas Milk Cows

Author:H. L. Mencken

“The essential dilemma of education is to be found in the fact that the sort of man (or woman) who knows a given subject sufficiently well to teach it is usually unwilling to do so.”

Knows Men Wells Facts Found Given Teach Subjects Essentials Dilemma Unwilling

Author:H. L. Mencken

“Blessed be Providence which has given to each his toy: the doll to the child, the child to the woman, the woman to the man, the man to the devil!”

Men Children Given Devil Blessed Toys Providence Dolls

Author:Victor Hugo