H. L. Mencken Quotes

Democracy is susceptible to being led astray by having scapegoats paraded in front of the electorate.

Politicians often confuse what sounds good with what really works.

Sometimes heads of state have to make statements for [local] public consumption.

A crowd, proportionately to its size, magnifies all that in its units pertains to the emotions, and diminishes all that in them pertains to thought.

A politician wants to come off as a happy warrior. To be contemplative seems almost effete, fancy – dispiriting somehow to much of your audience. He [Barack Obama] is not afraid to be this way at all.

A willingness by politicians to say what they think the public want to hear, and a willingness by large parts of the public to believe what they are told by populist politicians, has led to a deterioration in our public discourse.

All it takes to get elected in twenty-first-century America is a mob of frightened sheep and a wolf with a nice smile.

Crowds can be frightening. They have a way of impressing the low, base taste upon their members. Watching the way thousands of people in his audience could not think for themselves, could not find the courage to allow their ordinary feelings of decency and taste to prevail, I understood better how demagogues are possible.

I think the most important thing for the public and the press is to just listen to what Donald Trump says and follow up and ask questions about what appear to be either contradictory or uninformed or outright wacky ideas.

Reputation matters so much only because people so seldom think for themselves.

The sentimentalist does not think of what he does so much as of what the world will think of what he does.

Things poll well, but people don't believe that politicians are telling the truth. Politicians might mention renewable energy, and the public will think, "That sounds good, but I don't believe they're going to do everything they can to build those towers."

When people say things like "don't let this moment pass without acting on gun control," what they're really saying is our arguments are so unpersuasive that they can only succeed when people aren't thinking clearly.

As for the Folsom Prison show, ... would anybody have the guts to do that show now 50 Cent, maybe I think the whole idea of even playing to a crowd of people like that is so politically unfavorable now - it's like, 'What are you doing, singing for these people Do they deserve it' There's such anger in our culture right now, that kind of grace and forgiveness, we don't see that very often.

The idea of what the public will think prevents the public from ever thinking at all, and acts as a spell on the exercise of private judgment.

I think that fear of the mob, the expectation that people, particularly poor and nonwhite people become mobs almost automatically in the absence of coercive authority, is inculcated by the media, the movies, and politicians.

I think the Donald Trump's obsession is, is bigger than just polling. I mean it's funny because we've been harping on polls like never before, Trump was harping on his own polls endlessly. I mean his stump speeches would begin with him crowing about his latest poll numbers and that was just a kind of odd convergence.

Once when Phocion had delivered an opinion which pleased the people, he turned to his friend and said, "Have I not unawares spoken some mischievous thing or other?"

The main problem in any democracy is that crowd-pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage & whup their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy - then go back to the office & sell every one of the poor bastards down the tube for a nickel apiece. Probably the rarest form of life in American politics is the man who can turn on a crowd & still keep his head straight - assuming it was straight in the first place.

How many years did people hate Obamacare? Now there's a poll out there that says Obamacare's never been more popular. Really? Really? Just how stupid do you think we all are? After whatever it is, six years of rising premiums, lost coverage, horrible treatment, no access, now all of a sudden, and there hasn't been any improvement in enrollment.

All politicians are bores and liars and fakes. I talk to people.

I think my main concern is because I worry about demagoguery. It's real. You see the people standing up there and applauding.

I think what makes people think that is because of things people write. It really doesn't have anything to do with the artist.

I don't subscribe to the theory that all politicians are crap. I think the 'cool people' often take that position.

Donald Trump is a nice guy. He really is. Very personable. Sits there and talks to everybody. I'm happy. I like to see something new. I think it's exciting. He's got a great-looking family. His wife didn't look too bad. Not bad at all. This could be exciting.