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" A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin. "
H. L. Mencken
Looks
Flowers
He
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" Judge: a law student who marks his own examination-papers. "
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" The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor. "
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" A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar. "
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" I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing. "
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" Husbands never become good; they merely become proficient. "
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" It is not materialism that is the chief curse of the world, as pastors teach, but idealism. Men get into trouble by taking their visions and hallucinations too seriously. "
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" A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married. "
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" There is always an easy solution to every problem - neat, plausible, and wrong. "
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" A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground. "
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" The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression. "
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" If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner. "
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" Wealth - any income that is at least one hundred dollars more a year than the income of one's wife's sister's husband. "
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" A national political campaign is better than the best circus ever heard of, with a mass baptism and a couple of hangings thrown in. "
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" What men value in this world is not rights but privileges. "
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" The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in which it is overestimated. "
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" A prohibitionist is the sort of man one couldn't care to drink with, even if he drank. "
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" Life is a dead-end street. "
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" To be in love is merely to be in a state of perceptual anesthesia - to mistake an ordinary young woman for a goddess. "
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" Legend: A lie that has attained the dignity of age. "
H. L. Mencken
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" The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence. "
H. L. Mencken
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" Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses. "
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" The cynics are right nine times out of ten. "
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" The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal. "
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Animal
Other
Seems
" The only really happy folk are married women and single men. "
H. L. Mencken
Only
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" I write in order to attain that feeling of tension relieved and function achieved which a cow enjoys on giving milk. "
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Milk
Giving
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" War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands. "
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" Before a man speaks it is always safe to assume that he is a fool. After he speaks, it is seldom necessary to assume it. "
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" Poetry has done enough when it charms, but prose must also convince. "
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" Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage. "
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" Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop. "
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