Mencken Quotes

“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.”

“It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.”

“Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.”

“For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing.”

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.”

“Criticism is prejudice made plausible.”

“Self-respect: the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious.”