Libertarian Quotes by H. L. Mencken

13 Libertarian quotes by H. L. Mencken

All Libertarian quotes H. L. Mencken’s page

H. L. Mencken’s skeptical eye often lands on the absurdities of authority. This brief set of thirteen remarks offers a concise glimpse into his sharp wit and staunch advocacy for personal liberty.

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

H. L. Mencken

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Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man.

H. L. Mencken

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The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself.

H. L. Mencken

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We suffer most when the White House busts with ideas.

H. L. Mencken

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Elections are futures markets in stolen property.

H. L. Mencken

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The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it's good-bye to the…

H. L. Mencken

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The American people, North and South, went into the [Civil] war as citizens of their respective states, they came out as subjects…

H. L. Mencken

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The ideal Government of all reflective men, from Aristotle onward, is one which lets the individual alone - one which barely escapes…

H. L. Mencken

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It is the fundamental theory of all the more recent American law...that the average citizen is half-witted, and hence not to be…

H. L. Mencken

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The New Deal began, like the Salvation Army, by promising to save humanity. It ended, again like the Salvation Army, by running…

H. L. Mencken

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The average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth... It takes a special…

H. L. Mencken

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As for me, my literary theory, like my politics, is based chiefly upon one main idea, to wit, the idea of freedom.…

H. L. Mencken

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The fact is that the average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth.…

H. L. Mencken

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More by H. L. Mencken

Alimony - the ransom that the happy pay to the devil.

H. L. Mencken

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A bad artist almost always tries to conceal his incompetence by whooping up a new formula.

H. L. Mencken

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By profession a biologist, [Thomas Henry Huxley] covered in fact the whole field of the exact sciences, and then bulged through its four fences.…

H. L. Mencken

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So few men are really worth knowing, that it seems a shameful waste to let an anthropoid prejudice stand in the way of free…

H. L. Mencken

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Man's objection to love is that it dies hard; woman's, that when it is dead, it stays dead.

H. L. Mencken

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The lunatic fringe wags the underdog.

H. L. Mencken

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For it is an absurdity to call a country civilized in which a decent and industrious man, laboriously mastering a trade which is valuble…

H. L. Mencken

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Women have simple tastes. They get pleasure out of the conversation of children in arms and men in love.

H. L. Mencken

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The critic, to interpret his artist, even to understand his artist, must be able to get into the mind of his artist; he must…

H. L. Mencken

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There is, in fact, nothing about religious opinions that entitles them to any more respect than other opinions get. On the contrary, they tend…

H. L. Mencken

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Don't overestimate the decency of the human race.

H. L. Mencken

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Liberty ... was a two-headed boon. There was first, the liberty of the people as a whole to determine the forms of their own…

H. L. Mencken

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To the extent that I am genuinely educated, I am suspicious of all the things that the average citizen believes and the average pedagogue…

H. L. Mencken

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Philosophy first constructs a scheme of happiness and then tries to fit the world to it.

H. L. Mencken

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For it is the natural tendency of the ignorant to believe what is not true. In order to overcome that tendency it is not…

H. L. Mencken

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