"Of government, at least in democratic states, it……" — H. L. Mencken
"Of government, at least in democratic states, it may be said briefly that it is an agency engaged wholesale, and as a matter of solemn duty, in the performance of acts which all self-respecting individuals refrain from as a matter of common decency."
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H. L. Mencken
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647 Quotes by H. L. Mencken
H. L. Mencken has 647 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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A man full of faith is simply one who has lost the capacity for clear and realistic thought.
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Religion deserves no more respect than a pile of garbage.
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When I die, I shall be content to vanish into nothingness.... No show, however good, could conceivably be good forever…
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People say we need religion when what they really mean is we need police.
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Everyman is thoroughly happy twice in his life, just after he has met his first love, and just after he…
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Well, I tell you, if I have been wrong in my agnosticism, when I die I'll walk up to God…
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The Old Testament, as everyone who has looked into it is aware, drips with blood; there is, indeed, no more…
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Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in their readiness to doubt.
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To every complex question there is a simple answer and it is wrong...
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The average man never really thinks from end to end of his life. The mental activity of such people is…
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I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind - that its modest and greatly overestimated services…
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Goverment is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those…
See all 647 quotes by H. L. Mencken »
More Acts Quotes
This quote is filed under Acts Quotes,
one of 1,679 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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The ultimate end of human acts is eudaimonia, happiness in the sense of living well, which all men desire; all…
— Hannah Arendt
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Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate…
— Aristotle
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The act of dying is one of the acts of life.
— Marcus Aurelius
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Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.
— Teresa of Avila
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What matters is to live in the present, live now, for every moment is now. It is your thoughts and…
— Sai Baba
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We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs.…
— Philip James Bailey
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A speculator is a man who observes the future, and acts before it occurs.
— Bernard Baruch
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Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a…
— Joseph Addison
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The real 'action' in the liturgy in which we are all supposed to participate is the action of God himself.…
— Pope Benedict XVI
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Every individual acts and suffers in accordance with his peculiar teleology, which has all the inevitability of fate, so long…
— Alfred Adler
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He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.
— William Blake
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Most recently, terrorist forces have captured Israeli soldiers and fired rockets into Israeli cities - both unprovoked. These acts of…
— John Boehner
See all 1,679 Acts Quotes »