The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

Quote by Henry Louis Mencken

Topics: Politics Quotes

Theology is the effort to explain the unknowable in terms of the not worth knowing.

Theology is the effort to explain the unknowable in terms of the not worth knowing.

Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really...

Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really...

Science, at bottom, is really anti-intellectual. It always distrusts pure reason, and demands the production...

Science, at bottom, is really anti-intellectual. It always distrusts pure reason, and demands the production...

Voting is simply a way of determining which side is the stronger without putting it...

Voting is simply a way of determining which side is the stronger without putting it...

The surest way to get on in politics in America is to play the leading...

The surest way to get on in politics in America is to play the leading...

The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply...

The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply...

Democratic man, as I have remarked, is quite unable to think of himself as a...

Democratic man, as I have remarked, is quite unable to think of himself as a...

The way for newspapers to meet the competition of radio and television is simply to...

The way for newspapers to meet the competition of radio and television is simply to...

Most people are unable to write because they are unable to think, and they are...

Most people are unable to write because they are unable to think, and they are...

During many a single week, I daresay, more money is spent in New York upon...

During many a single week, I daresay, more money is spent in New York upon...

If women believed in their husbands they would be a good deal happier - and...

If women believed in their husbands they would be a good deal happier - and...

How little it takes to make life unbearable: a pebble in the shoe, a cockroach...

How little it takes to make life unbearable: a pebble in the shoe, a cockroach...

Idealist: One who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that...

Idealist: One who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that...

Has the great art and mystery of politics no apparent utility? Does it appear to...

Has the great art and mystery of politics no apparent utility? Does it appear to...

Misogynist: A man who hates women as much as women hate one another.

Misogynist: A man who hates women as much as women hate one another.

It seems to me that a great university ought to have room in it for...

It seems to me that a great university ought to have room in it for...

When a new source of taxation is found it never means, in practice, that the...

When a new source of taxation is found it never means, in practice, that the...

Men become civilized not in proportion to their willingness to believe but in proportion to...

Men become civilized not in proportion to their willingness to believe but in proportion to...

We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet; and amid all the forms of...

We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet; and amid all the forms of...

We are wiser than we know.

We are wiser than we know.