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Uncommon Sense

Pithy sayings and brilliant observations

Tag: H. L. Mencken

(1880 – 1956) American journalist

Government vs. liberty

All government, of course, is against liberty.

Author Greg RavenPosted on January 11, 2023Categories governmentTags H. L. Mencken

Eat the others

If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.

Author Greg RavenPosted on January 11, 2023Categories politicsTags H. L. Mencken

Getting what you deserve

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

Author Greg RavenPosted on January 11, 2023Categories democracyTags H. L. Mencken

Running the circus

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.

Author Greg RavenPosted on January 11, 2023Categories democracyTags H. L. Mencken

Collective wisdom

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

Author Greg RavenPosted on January 11, 2023Categories democracyTags H. L. Mencken

All government is evil

I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.

Author Greg RavenPosted on July 26, 2022Categories governmentTags H. L. Mencken

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.

Author Greg RavenPosted on May 14, 2022Categories rebellionTags H. L. Mencken

Newspapers

A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier.

Author Greg RavenPosted on April 26, 2021April 26, 2021Categories education, informed electorateTags H. L. Mencken

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.

Author Greg RavenPosted on April 23, 2021Categories liberty, warTags H. L. Mencken

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.

Author Greg RavenPosted on February 26, 2021February 26, 2021Categories governmentTags H. L. Mencken

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“Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides.” — Thomas Paine

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