Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Explore the best of H. L. Mencken Quotes, as voted by our community. The plain fact is that education is itself a form of propaganda - a deliberate scheme to outfit the pupil, not with the capacity to weigh ideas, but with a simple appetite for gulping ideas ready-made. There was a time when Jupiter was the king of the gods, and any man who doubted his puissance was, “The best teacher is not the one who knows most but the one who is most capable of reducing knowledge to that simple compound of the obvious and wonderful.”, “A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.”, “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.”, “Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. Mencken (2013). Quotations by H. L. Mencken, American Writer, Born September 12, 1880. Mencken. A school is a hopper into which children are heaved while they are still young and tender; therein they are pressed into certain standard shapes and covered from head to heels with official rubber-stamps. H.L. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”, “The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. Book by H L. Mencken, 1956. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable. Gary Galles examines Mencken's thought. Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. And even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are.”, “Civilization, in fact, grows more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. “Minority Report”, p.209, Knopf, H.L. Mencken. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. Enjoy the best H. L. Mencken quotes and picture quotes! “I know some who are constantly drunk on books as other men are drunk on whiskey.”, “The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.”, “As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. Aiden Mason 4 years ago. Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. — … He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty and common decency. Mencken (2013). Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. #Truth #Opposites #Errors “If the average man is made in God's image, then such a man as Beethoven or Aristotle is plainly superior to God.”-- H. L. Mencken . "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth. H. L. Mencken Quotes (127) - Poetry Has Done Enough When It Charm... - Quotes One Of The Most Mawkish Of Human Delusions Is The Notion That Friendship Should Be Eternal, Or, At All Events, Life-long, And That Any Act Which Puts A Term To It Is Somehow Discreditable. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of. Share with your friends. Mencken (2013). But I do not repine, for I am a subject of it only by force of arms.”, “A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.”, “If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl.”, “Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.
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