"The men the American people admire most..." - Quote by H L Mencken

“Government, like any other organism, refuses to acquiesce in its own extinction. This refusal, of course, involves the resistance to any effort to diminish its powers and prerogatives.”

“The truth, indeed, is something that mankind, for some mysterious reason, instinctively dislikes. Every man who tries to tell it is unpopular, and even when, by the sheer strength of his case, he prevails, he is put down as a scoundrel.”

“What fetched me instantly (and thousands of other newcomers with me) was the subtle but unmistakable sense of escape from the United States.”

“... No photograph ever was good, yet, of anybody - hunger and thirst and utter wretchedness overtake the outlaw who invented it! It transforms into desperadoes the weakest of men; depicts sinless innocence upon the pictured faces of ruffians; gives the wise man the stupid leer of a fool, and the fool an expression of more than earthly wisdom.”

“If one could only say just once: 'this is clear', all would be saved”

“The great mass of our citizens require only to understand matters rightly, to form right decisions.”

“Don't Let them fool you or even try to school you”

“Live loath'd and long,Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites,Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears,You fools of fortune, trencher friends, time fliesCap and knee slaves, vapors, and minute jacks.”

“So will I turn her virtue into pitch, And out of her own goodness make the net That shall enmesh them all.”