All government, of course, is against liberty.
Tag: H. L. Mencken
(1880 – 1956) American journalist
Eat the others
If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.
Getting what you deserve
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
Running the circus
Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.
Collective wisdom
Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.
All government is evil
I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.
Needed: A return to normalcy
Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
Newspapers
A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier.
I believe in only one thing
I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone.
The worst failure
Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping and unintelligent.