Author: H. L. Mencken

“Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.”

“… All the odds are on the man who is, is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily and adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The presidency tends, year … Continue reading →

“The urge to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it.”

“The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to prevailing superstition or taboo.”

“A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.”

“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. The urge to save humanity is always … Continue reading →