---
title: "31 Ideas Quotes By H. L. Mencken"
description: "31 Ideas quotes by H. L. Mencken. Plus more from H. L. Mencken and more Ideas sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1a6/h-l-mencken-245_believe_there-is-no-idea-so-stupid-that-you-can_606374.png"
---

> [There is no idea so stupid that you can't find a professor who will believe it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/there-is-no-idea-so-stupid-that-you-can-t-find-a-professor-who-will/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1a6/h-l-mencken-245_believe_there-is-no-idea-so-stupid-that-you-can_606374.png)

> [The kind of man who demands that government enforce his ideas is always the kind whose ideas are idiotic.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-kind-of-man-who-demands-that-government-enforce-his-ideas-is/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/52f/h-l-mencken-245_demand_the-kind-of-man-who-demands-that-governm_2790677.png)

> [Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/any-man-who-afflicts-the-human-race-with-ideas-must-be-prepared-to/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/792/h-l-mencken-245_anarchy_any-man-who-afflicts-the-human-race-with_80332.png)

> [We suffer most when the White House busts with ideas.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/we-suffer-most-when-the-white-house-busts-with-ideas/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/547/h-l-mencken-245_economic_we-suffer-most-when-the-white-house-bust_423697.png)

> [My guess is that well over eighty per cent. of the human race goes through life without having a single original thought..](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/my-guess-is-that-well-over-eighty-per-cent-of-the-human-race-goes/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ee5/h-l-mencken-245_cents_my-guess-is-that-well-over-eighty-per-ce_3059594.png)

> [The physical business of writing is unpleasant to me, but the psychic satisfaction of discharging bad ideas in worse English makes me…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-physical-business-of-writing-is-unpleasant-to-me-but-the-psychic/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/168/h-l-mencken-245_bad-idea_the-physical-business-of-writing-is-unpl_2498994.png)

> [To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/to-die-for-an-idea-it-is-unquestionably-noble-but-how-much-nobler-it/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/07e/h-l-mencken-245_ideas_to-die-for-an-idea-it-is-unquestionably_2605304.png)

> [The idea that the sole aim of punishment is to prevent crime is obviously grounded upon the theory that crime can be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-idea-that-the-sole-aim-of-punishment-is-to-prevent-crime-is/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed9/h-l-mencken-245_aim_the-idea-that-the-sole-aim-of-punishment_2190673.png)

> [The two main ideas that run through all of my writing, whether it be literary criticism or political polemic are these: I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-two-main-ideas-that-run-through-all-of-my-writing-whether-it-be/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/654/h-l-mencken-245_criticism_the-two-main-ideas-that-run-through-all_1685671.png)

> [A skeptic as to all ideas, including especially my own, I have never suffered a pang when the ideas of some other…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/a-skeptic-as-to-all-ideas-including-especially-my-own-i-have-never/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d44/h-l-mencken-245_envy_a-skeptic-as-to-all-ideas-including-espe_59883.png)

> [The average man does not get pleasure out of an idea because he thinks it is true; he thinks it is true…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-average-man-does-not-get-pleasure-out-of-an-idea-because-he/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/780/h-l-mencken-245_average_the-average-man-does-not-get-pleasure-ou_466111.png)

> [The older I grow the less I esteem mere ideas. In politics, particularly, they are transient and unimportant. . . . There…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-older-i-grow-the-less-i-esteem-mere-ideas-in-politics/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a7d/h-l-mencken-245_character_the-older-i-grow-the-less-i-esteem-mere_59769.png)

> [The mistake that is made always runs the other way. Because the plain people are able to speak and understand, and even,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-mistake-that-is-made-always-runs-the-other-way-because-the-plain/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bd4/h-l-mencken-245_able_the-mistake-that-is-made-always-runs-the_282470.png)

> [No man ever quite believes in any other man. One may believe in an idea absolutely, but not in a man. In…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/no-man-ever-quite-believes-in-any-other-man-one-may-believe-in-an-2/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a53/h-l-mencken-245_believe_no-man-ever-quite-believes-in-any-other_2635539.png)

> [What chiefly distinguishes the daily press is its incurable fear of ideas, its constant effort to evade the discussion of fundamentals by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/what-chiefly-distinguishes-the-daily-press-is-its-incurable-fear-of/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/96a/h-l-mencken-245_constant_what-chiefly-distinguishes-the-daily-pre_850357.png)

> [As if paralyzed by the national fear of ideas, the democratic distrust of whatever strikes beneath the prevailing platitudes, it evades all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/as-if-paralyzed-by-the-national-fear-of-ideas-the-democratic-distrust/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a89/h-l-mencken-245_american-literature_as-if-paralyzed-by-the-national-fear-of_1025565.png)

> [When I think of anything properly describable as a beautiful idea, it is always in the form of music. I have written…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/when-i-think-of-anything-properly-describable-as-a-beautiful-idea-it/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0df/h-l-mencken-245_beautiful_when-i-think-of-anything-properly-descri_2926809.png)

> [The idea that leisure is of value in itself is only conditionally true. The average man simply spends his leisure as a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-idea-that-leisure-is-of-value-in-itself-is-only-conditionally/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d05/h-l-mencken-245_average_the-idea-that-leisure-is-of-value-in-its_1730445.png)

> [The human race is divided into two sharply differentiated and mutually antagonistic classes: a smal l minority that plays with ideas and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-human-race-is-divided-into-two-sharply-differentiated-and/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f69/h-l-mencken-245_capable_the-human-race-is-divided-into-two-sharp_2535836.jpg)

> [I never listen to debates. They are dreadful things indeed. The plain truth is that I am not a fair man, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/i-never-listen-to-debates-they-are-dreadful-things-indeed-the-plain/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/36d/h-l-mencken-245_aviation_i-never-listen-to-debates-they-are-dread_87658.png)

> [I hope I need not confess that a large part of my stock in trade consists of platitudes rescued from the cobwebbed…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/i-hope-i-need-not-confess-that-a-large-part-of-my-stock-in-trade/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f25/h-l-mencken-245_all-time_i-hope-i-need-not-confess-that-a-large-p_2090784.png)

> [The so-called Philosophy of India is even more blowsy and senseless than the metaphysics of the West. It is at war with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-so-called-philosophy-of-india-is-even-more-blowsy-and-senseless/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2aa/h-l-mencken-245_absolutely-nothing_the-so-called-philosophy-of-india-is-eve_1798357.png)

> [The most curious social convention of the great age in which we live is the one to the effect that religious opinions…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-most-curious-social-convention-of-the-great-age-in-which-we-live-2/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9d0/h-l-mencken-245_accomplish_the-most-curious-social-convention-of-th_1136856.png)

> [The essence of science is that it is always willing to abandon a given idea, however fundamental it may seem to be,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-essence-of-science-is-that-it-is-always-willing-to-abandon-a-3/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/41e/h-l-mencken-245_abandon_the-essence-of-science-is-that-it-is-alw_2715546.jpg)

> [No one in this world, so far as I know--and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/no-one-in-this-world-so-far-as-i-know-and-i-have-searched-the-records/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0c7/h-l-mencken-245_able_no-one-in-this-world-so-far-as-i-know-an_74614.png)

> [When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/when-a-candidate-for-public-office-faces-the-voters-he-does-not-face-2/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d49/h-l-mencken-245_bark_when-a-candidate-for-public-office-faces_2062025.jpg)

> [No one ever heard of the truth being enforced by law. When the secular is called in to sustain an idea, whether…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/no-one-ever-heard-of-the-truth-being-enforced-by-law-when-the-secular/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/384/h-l-mencken-245_bad-idea_no-one-ever-heard-of-the-truth-being-enf_681236.jpg)

> [Kant was probably the worst writer ever heard of on earth before Karl Marx. Some of his ideas were really quite simple,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/kant-was-probably-the-worst-writer-ever-heard-of-on-earth-before-karl/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f2f/h-l-mencken-245_earth_kant-was-probably-the-worst-writer-ever_2100165.png)

> [As for me, my literary theory, like my politics, is based chiefly upon one main idea, to wit, the idea of freedom.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/as-for-me-my-literary-theory-like-my-politics-is-based-chiefly-upon/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/598/h-l-mencken-245_extremes_as-for-me-my-literary-theory-like-my-pol_2456733.png)

> [The whole drift of our law is toward the absolute prohibition of all ideas that diverge in the slightest form from the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-whole-drift-of-our-law-is-toward-the-absolute-prohibition-of-all/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ad8/h-l-mencken-245_absolutes_the-whole-drift-of-our-law-is-toward-the_2353060.jpg)

> [I have long been convinced that the idea of liberty is abhorrent to most human beings. What they want is security, not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/i-have-long-been-convinced-that-the-idea-of-liberty-is-abhorrent-to/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/43d/h-l-mencken-245_abhorrent_i-have-long-been-convinced-that-the-idea_2254853.jpg)

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## More by H. L. Mencken

> [Alimony - the ransom that the happy pay to the devil.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/alimony-the-ransom-that-the-happy-pay-to-the-devil/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [A bad artist almost always tries to conceal his incompetence by whooping up a new formula.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/a-bad-artist-almost-always-tries-to-conceal-his-incompetence-by/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [ By profession a biologist, \[Thomas Henry Huxley\] covered in fact the whole field of the exact sciences, and then bulged through its four fences.… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/by-profession-a-biologist-thomas-henry-huxley-covered-in-fact-the/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [So few men are really worth knowing, that it seems a shameful waste to let an anthropoid prejudice stand in the way of free…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/so-few-men-are-really-worth-knowing-that-it-seems-a-shameful-waste-to/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [Man's objection to love is that it dies hard; woman's, that when it is dead, it stays dead.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/man-s-objection-to-love-is-that-it-dies-hard-woman-s-that-when-it-is/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [The lunatic fringe wags the underdog.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-lunatic-fringe-wags-the-underdog/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [For it is an absurdity to call a country civilized in which a decent and industrious man, laboriously mastering a trade which is valuble…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/for-it-is-an-absurdity-to-call-a-country-civilized-in-which-a-decent/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [Women have simple tastes. They get pleasure out of the conversation of children in arms and men in love.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/women-have-simple-tastes-they-get-pleasure-out-of-the-conversation-of/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [The critic, to interpret his artist, even to understand his artist, must be able to get into the mind of his artist; he must…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/the-critic-to-interpret-his-artist-even-to-understand-his-artist-must/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [There is, in fact, nothing about religious opinions that entitles them to any more respect than other opinions get. On the contrary, they tend…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/there-is-in-fact-nothing-about-religious-opinions-that-entitles-them/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [Don't overestimate the decency of the human race.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/don-t-overestimate-the-decency-of-the-human-race/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [Liberty ... was a two-headed boon. There was first, the liberty of the people as a whole to determine the forms of their own…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/liberty-was-a-two-headed-boon-there-was-first-the-liberty-of-the/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [To the extent that I am genuinely educated, I am suspicious of all the things that the average citizen believes and the average pedagogue…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/to-the-extent-that-i-am-genuinely-educated-i-am-suspicious-of-all-the/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [Philosophy first constructs a scheme of happiness and then tries to fit the world to it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/philosophy-first-constructs-a-scheme-of-happiness-and-then-tries-to/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

> [For it is the natural tendency of the ignorant to believe what is not true. In order to overcome that tendency it is not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/for-it-is-the-natural-tendency-of-the-ignorant-to-believe-what-is-not/)

[H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/)

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                        "text": "A skeptic as to all ideas, including especially my own, I have never suffered a pang when the ideas of some other imbecile prevailed.",
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                        "text": "When I think of anything properly describable as a beautiful idea, it is always in the form of music. I have written and printed probably 10,000,000 words in English but all the same I shall die an inarticulate man, for my best ideas beset me in a language I know only vaguely and speak only as a child.",
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                        "text": "The idea that leisure is of value in itself is only conditionally true. The average man simply spends his leisure as a dog spends it. His recreations are all puerile, and the time supposed to benefit him really only stupefies him.",
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                        "text": "The human race is divided into two sharply differentiated and mutually antagonistic classes: a smal l minority that plays with ideas and is capable of taking them in, and a vast majority that finds them painful, and is thus arrayed against them, and against all who have traffic with them.",
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                        "text": "I never listen to debates. They are dreadful things indeed. The plain truth is that I am not a fair man, and don't want to hear both sides. On all known subjects, ranging from aviation to xylophone-playing, I have fixed and invariable ideas. They have not changed since I was four or five.",
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                        "text": "I hope I need not confess that a large part of my stock in trade consists of platitudes rescued from the cobwebbed shelves of yesterday... This borrowing and refurbishing of shop-worn goods, as a matter of fact, is the invariable habit of traders in ideas, at all times and everywhere. It is not, however, that all the conceivable human notions have been thought out; it is simply, to be quite honest, that the sort of men who volunteer to think out new ones seldom, if ever, have wind enough for a full day's work.",
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                        "text": "The so-called Philosophy of India is even more blowsy and senseless than the metaphysics of the West. It is at war with everything we know of the workings of the human mind, and with every sound idea formulated by mankind. If it prevailed in the whole modern world we'd still be in the Thirteenth Century; nay, we'd be back among the Egyptians of the pyramid age. Its only coherent contribution to Western thought has been theosophy-and theosophy is as idiotic as Christian Science. It has absolutely nothing to offer a civilized white man.",
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                        "text": "The most curious social convention of the great age in which we live is the one to the effect that religious opinions should be respected. Its evil effects must be plain enough to everyone. All it accomplishes is (a) to throw a veil of sanctity about ideas that violate every intellectual decency, and (b) to make every theologian a sort of chartered libertine. No doubt it is mainly to blame for the appalling slowness with which really sound notions make their way in the world.",
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                        "text": "The essence of science is that it is always willing to abandon a given idea, however fundamental it may seem to be, for a better one; the essence of theology is that it holds its truths to be eternal and immutable. To be sure, theology is always yielding a little to the progress of knowledge, and only a Holy Roller in the mountains of Tennessee would dare to preach today what the popes preached in the Thirteenth Century, but this yielding is always done grudgingly, and thus lingers a good while behind the event.",
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                        "text": "No one in this world, so far as I know--and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me--has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has any one ever lost public office thereby. The mistake that is made always runs the other way. Because the plain people are able to speak and understand, and even, in many cases, to read and write, it is assumed that they have ideas in their heads, and an appetite for more. This assumption is folly. They dislike ideas, for ideas make them uncomfortable.",
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                        "text": "When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental - men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost... All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre.",
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                        "text": "No one ever heard of the truth being enforced by law. When the secular is called in to sustain an idea, whether new or old, it is always a bad idea, and not infrequently it is downright idiotic.",
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                        "text": "Kant was probably the worst writer ever heard of on earth before Karl Marx. Some of his ideas were really quite simple, but he always managed to make them seem unintelligible. I hope he is in Hell.",
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                        "text": "As for me, my literary theory, like my politics, is based chiefly upon one main idea, to wit, the idea of freedom. I am, in brief, a libertarian of the most extreme variety, and know of no human right that is one-tenth as valuable as the simple right to utter what seems (at the moment) to be the truth",
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                        "text": "The whole drift of our law is toward the absolute prohibition of all ideas that diverge in the slightest form from the accepted platitudes, and behind that drift of law there is a far more potent force of growing custom, and under that custom there is a natural philosophy which erects conformity into the noblest of virtues and the free functioning of personality into a capital crime against society.",
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                        "text": "I have long been convinced that the idea of liberty is abhorrent to most human beings. What they want is security, not freedom. Thus it seldom causes any public indignation when an enterprising tyrant claps down on one of his enemies. To most men it seems a natural proceeding.",
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