H.L. Mencken
American · 1880–1956
American journalist, essayist, and cultural critic known as "The Sage of Baltimore." His savage commentary on American democracy, religion, and cultural pretension made him the most influential American literary critic of the early twentieth century.
Wikipedia ↗“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
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“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, most of them imaginary.”
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“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.”
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“Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
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“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. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable.”
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“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule it. Power is what all messiahs really seek: not the chance to serve.”
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