H. L. Mencken Quotes

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.

Setting people to spy on one another is not the way to protect freedom.

Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men.

All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.

The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitarian despot who wants to turn them into puppets.

Tyrants of our day are the most dangerous preachers of liberty.

Whatever crushes individuality is despotism.

A totalitarian society makes enormous demands on the courage of men, and a partially totalitarian society makes even greater demands because the general anxiety is greater.

Absolute power should never be trusted to man. It has perverted the wisest heads, and corrupted the best hearts in the world. I should be afraid to commit my property, liberty and life to a body of angels for one whole year.

So long as people believe in the perfectibility of man, they will continue to use those freedom-destroying ‘bad means’ (totalitarianism) that promise the quickest shortcut to this ‘good end.’

The love of material ease has been, in the mass of men and permanently speaking, always greater than the love of liberty.

… the mortal enemy of liberty

I don't know if I want to live in a country where lone wolf and random terror attacks are impossible 'cause that country would look more like North Korea than America.

Civilization after civilization, it is the same. The world falls to tyranny with a whisper. The frightened are ever keen to bow to a perceived necessity, in the belief that necessity forces conformity, and conformity a certain stability. In a world shaped into conformity, dissidents stand out, are easily branded and dealt with. There is no multitude of perspectives, no dialogue. The victim assumes the face of the tyrant, self-righteous and intransigent, and wars breed like vermin. And people die.

Whenever all men are...hastening to be slaves or tyrants we make Liberalism the prime bogey.

Man and fascism cannot co-exist. If fascism conquers, man will cease to exist and there will remain only man-like creatures that have undergone an internal transformation. But if man, man who is endowed with reason and kindness, should conquer, then Fascism must perish, and those who have submitted to it will once again become people.

Each man too is a tyrant in tendency, because he would impose his idea on others; and their trick is their natural defence. Jesuswould absorb the race; but Tom Paine or the coarsest blasphemer helps humanity by resisting this exuberance of power.

Nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom. –The Grand Inquisitor

Tyranny and anarchy are alike incompatible with freedom, security, and the enjoyment of opportunity.

Once any tyranny becomes accepted as ordinary, its victory is assured.

Despotism subjects a nation to one tyrant; democracy, to many.

I never loved totalitarianism and all the ideas of making mankind happy always seemed crazy to me.

Any appeasement of tyranny is treason.

We are a slack people but deeply destructive … I think that a constitutional regime would mean the end of Russia. We need a despot!

The government assures the people that they are in danger from the invasion of another nation, or from foes in their midst, and that the only way to escape this danger is by the slavish obedience of the people to their government. This fact is seen most prominently during revolutions and dictatorships, but it exists always and everywhere that the power of the government exists.