H. L. Mencken

“A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.”

“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.”

“Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.”

“The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.”

“Theology is the effort to explain the unknowable in terms of the not worth knowing.”

“It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull.”

“We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine.”

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

“I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant.”