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Quote by H. L. Mencken

“The common notion that free speech prevails in the United States always makes me laugh.”

Quote by H. L. Mencken

Book:Diary of H. L. Mencken

Work

Diary of H. L. Mencken

This book offers a glimpse into the life and thoughts of H. L. Mencken, a prominent figure in American journalism and cultural criticism during the early 20th century. The diary entries provide insights into his views on society, politics, and the arts, reflecting his wit and sharp intellect. 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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“Government, in its very essence, is opposed to all increase in knowledge. Its tendency is always towards permanence and against change...[T]he progress of humanity, far from being the result of government, has been made entirely without its aid and in the face if its constant and bitter opposition.”

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Author:H. L. Mencken

“An altruist is one who would be sincerely sorry to see his neighbor's children devoured by wolves.”

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“Citizenship in New York is now worth no more than citizenship in Arkansas, for it is open to any applicant from the marshes of Bessarabia, and, still worse, to any applicant from Arkansas.”

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Book:Prejudices Fourth Series

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“The pedant and the priest have always been the most expert of logicians - and the most diligent disseminators of nonsense and worse.”

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Author:H. L. Mencken

“The doctrine that the cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy is like saying that the cure of crime is more crime.”

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“To be happy one must be (a) well fed, unhounded by sordid cares, at ease in Zion, (b) full of a comfortable feeling of superiority to the masses of one's fellow men, and (c) delicately and unceasingly amused according to one's taste. It is my contention that, if this definition be accepted, there is no country in the world wherein a man constituted as I am - a man of my peculiar weakness, vanities, appetites, and aversions - can be so happy as he can be in the United States.”

“Shave a gorilla and it would be almost impossible, at twenty paces, to distinguish him from a heavyweight champion of the world. Skin a chimpanzee, and it would take an autopsy to prove he was not a theologian.”

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“What are the hallmarks of a competent writer of fiction? The first, it seems to me, is that he should be immensely interested in human beings, and have an eye sharp enough to see into them, and a hand clever enough to draw them as they are. The second is that he should be able to set them in imaginary situations which display the contents of their psyches effectively, and so carry his reader swiftly and pleasantly from point to point of what is called a good story.”

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“The chief difference between free capitalism and State socialism seems to be this: that under the former a man pursues his own advantage openly, frankly and honestly, whereas under the latter he does so hypocritically and under false pretenses.”

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Book:Minority Report

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“School teachers, taking them by and large, are probably the most ignorant and stupid class of men in the whole group of mental workers.”

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Book:The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche

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