H. L. Mencken

“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.”

“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”

“A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.”

“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.”

“Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”

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

“An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.”

“No one in this world, so far as I know... has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.”

“Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.”

“The average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe.”

“A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.”

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

“The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.”

“God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.”

“Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.”

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

“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.”

“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.”

“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.”

“Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy.”