from H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
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Democracy: The worship of jackals by jackasses.
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Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
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The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office.
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The men the American public admires most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.
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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.
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Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
A selection supplied by Paul Rux.
