H. L. Mencken Quotes
A sense of humor always withers in the presence of the messianic delusion, like justice and the truth in front of patriotic passion.
Quotes to Explore
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I don't want the news to be patriotic. I don't want to see flags on the lapels of the anchors. I don't want any of that.
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I'm always trying to do the impossible to please people. It comes from not being secure in myself and not looking at the things within I have to fix. Sometimes you keep going because you don't want to face the truth.
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I think that all things, in their way, reflect heavenly truth, the imagination not least.
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I've found that musical theater is my passion.
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Science makes no pretension to eternal truth or absolute truth.
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The cops picked me up for attempted murder. I can still see the detectives, licking their chops. Thought they had me. Two weeks later, the cat came out of a coma and told the truth. I was innocent.
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I used to say to my bubbe, 'Bubbe, is this story true?' And she'd say, 'Of course it's true! But it may not have happened.' What my bubbe was saying is profound: All stories are true. The truth is the journey you take through it - did it make you laugh, cry, seek and want justice? Then it's true.
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Ethics and equity and the principles of justice do not change with the calendar.
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The reason that I'm here at all is because of my relationship with my family and their encouragement of me to be a musician and to work hard. As long as I stay there in that space, I can do anything. That's my truth.
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My alignment is with what I perceive as just and fair. If it's with the Muslims, then I'm with the Muslims, if it's with the West then I'm with the West. It's about justice and fairness.
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Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.
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There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.
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Obviously any band, any group, someday is not going to be together anymore. That's the truth.
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I might cook occasionally, but I'm not a good cook. That's not my passion.
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If I have any advice to give to the Syrian president it is to cooperate for the sake of the investigation or for the sake of uncovering the truth.
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You sit up there, and you see the whole gamut of human nature. Even if the case being argued involves only a little fellow and $50, it involves justice. That's what is important.
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Everyone, left to his own devices, forms an idea about what goes on in language which is very far from the truth.
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Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.
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It is your passion that empowers you to be able to do that thing you were created to do.
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If I have a reason to do something, and I have enough passion, I generally succeed.
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The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim.
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Write a story a great writer would write. Because part of becoming an artist is pushing through all the disbelief of those around you, deciding that you are a writer when you have no idea what a plot is or whether what you've written is any good, or anything.
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There's a switch inside every one of us that I guess grew there as a necessary part of survival. How can you drag a fish up out of the river for your supper if you feel the yank of the hook in your own cheek? I get that part. We can't feel for everyone and everything all the time. We'd die of fear or sorrow a hundred times a day. The thing is, it's gotten so we flick the switch off like it's nothing. And, more often than not, we forget to turn it back on.
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A sense of humor always withers in the presence of the messianic delusion, like justice and the truth in front of patriotic passion.
