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To quote H.L. Mencken

Submitted by Roanman on Mon, 07/13/2009 - 07:50
  
 I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.
 
Nature abhors a moron.
 
God is a Republican, and Santa Claus is a Democrat.
 
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
 
I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war on liberty, and that the democratic government is at least as bad as any of the other forms.
 
The natural tendency of every government is to grow steadily worse  that is, to grow more satisfactory to those who constitute it and less satisfactory to those who support it.
 
The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false face for the urge to rule it.
 
You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.
 
You come into the world with nothing, and the purpose of your life is to make something out of nothing.
 
Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.
 
Self-respect.  The secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious.
 
To expect defeat is nine-tenths of defeat itself.
 
 
People will believe what they want to believe.
 
It is a sin to believe evil of others, but it is seldom a mistake.
 
The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear - fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. 
What he wants above everything else is safety.
 
A fool who, after plain warning, persists in dosing himself with dangerous drugs should be free to do so, for his death is a benefit to the race in general.
 
The trouble with Communism is the Communists, just as the trouble with Christianity is the Christians.
 
The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God's children, but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil.
 
There is only one honest impulse at the bottom of Puritanism, and that is the impulse to punish the man with a superior capacity for happiness.
 
Evangelical Christianity, as everyone knows, is founded upon hate, as the Christianity of Christ was founded upon love.
 
I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind - that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.
 
Perhaps the most revolting character that the United States ever produced was the Christian business man.
 
There is something even more valuable to civilization than wisdom, and that is character.
 
I'm against slavery simply because I dislike slaves.
 
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.
 
History deals mainly with captains and kings, gods and prophets, exploiters and despoilers, not with useful men.
 
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.
 
On one issue, at least, men and women agree:  they both distrust women.
 
Bachelors know more about women than married men; if they didn't they'd be married too.
 
A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.
 
If you want peace, work for justice.
 
Change is not progress.