H. L. Mencken Quotes

Taxes on capital, taxes on labor, inflation, bureaucratic regulation, minimum wage laws, are all - to different degrees - unnecessary slices of the wedge that stand between an individual's effort and reward for that effort.

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

If the government ever imposes a tax on books - and I wouldn't put it past them - I'm in dead trouble.

I believe with my sage and epigrammatic friend P. J. O'Rourke that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take it all away.

Government has gotten too big, and it's infringed on our liberty and freedom.

[P]rogressivism is a top-down, continent-wide tissue of taxes, mandates, and other coercions.

Spreading the wealth punishes success while setting America on course for a greater dependency on government.

America has to stand up and decide if we want to be a socialist nation or if we're going to be a free nation.

Under the guise of protecting us from ourselves, the right and the left are becoming ever more aggressive in regulating behavior.

I'm not a big fan of regulation: anyone who likes freedom of the press can't be.

We have seen an outrageous increase in the size, scope, and intrusiveness of the federal government.

Progressivism is the belief that we have too much freedom with which to make too many stupid choices.

If you feel the government should leave you alone, you're a Republican. If you think the job of the government is to go push people around and take things for you, then you're a Democrat.

I don't like government, it's just that simple.

The Democratic Party is made up of trial lawyers, labor unions, government employees, big city political machines, the coercive utopians, the radical environmentalists, feminists, and others who want to restructure society with tax dollars and government fiat.

Today it is not big business that we have to fear. It is big government.

A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.

Experience tells us that we do not need more overspending or higher taxes to grow jobs. We do not need more regulations or more government control - such as the government takeover of health care or the restrictions in domestic energy production.

I believe that government is too large, costs too much, spends too much, and has too much regulatory power in our lives.

Whenever regulation increases, personal freedom decreases.

Government is good at one thing. It knows how to cripple you and then hand you a crutch.

Nothing is so galling to a people not broken in from the birth as a paternal, or in other words a meddling government, a government which tells them what to read and say and eat and drink and wear.

Now we’re going to get big government.

With Government funding comes regulation.

The new puritans have been highly successful. All of the preconditions for new prohibitions on alcohol and tobacco are in place. ... Indeed, the future agenda of the federal government has already been established to outlaw alcohol and tobacco in the near future. ... If current trends persist, America will be moving toward stricter prohibitions, greater restrictions, and more centralized control over consumption. This represents an erosion of liberty at its most fundamental level.