Art Quote by H. L. Mencken
“The art of politics, under democracy, is simply the art of ringing it. Two branches reveal themselves. There is the art of the demagogue, and there is the art of what may be called, by a shot-gun marriage of Latin and Greek, the demaslave. They are complementary, and both of them are degrading to their practitioners. The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots. The demaslave is one who listens to what these idiots have to say and then pretends that he believes it himself.”
About This Quote
Source Essay: The American Language, 1919
Describes democracy's politics as two degrading arts: demagoguery and demaslave, both corrupting practitioners.
In simple terms: Politics can be corrupt and insincere.
Key Takeaway
Beware of false rhetoric.
Themes
politics
democracy
corruption
manipulation
Mood
cynical
critical
skeptical
Type
satirical
observational
When to use this quote
- election campaigns
- media commentary
- public speeches
- policy debates
Key Concepts
demagoguery
demaslave
degradation
public discourse
Questions to Reflect On
- What drives politicians to deceive?
- How can citizens detect insincerity?
A Different Perspective
Not all political speech is deceitful.
![“By profession a biologist, [Thomas Henry Huxley] covered in fact the whole field of the exact sciences, and then bulged through its four fences. Absolutely nothing was uninteresting to him. His curiosity ranged from music to theology and from philosophy to history. He didn't simply know something…” quote by H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f46/h-l-mencken-245_absolutely-nothing_by-profession-a-biologist-thomas-henry-h_5368.jpg)
