H. L. Mencken Quotes

I have long been convinced that the idea of liberty is abhorrent to most human beings. What they want is security, not freedom. Thus it seldom causes any public indignation when an enterprising tyrant claps down on one of his enemies. To most men it seems a natural proceeding.

H. L. Mencken

• Men
• Long
• Freedom

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Quotes to Explore

• Our franchises have never been healthier. Our league, in terms of its economic footing, has never been healthier.

  

  Gary Bettman
  • Never
  • Economic
  • Been

• Most people treat the present moment as if it were an obstacle that they need to overcome. Since the present moment is life itself, it is an insane way to live.

  

  Eckhart Tolle
  • People
  • Life
  • Live

• I went to this one in Ohio, and then I became a counselor there, and it was just the most fun thing. I was so depressed when I came home from camp.

  

  Vanessa Bayer
  • Home
  • Fun
  • Just

• My dad's a Jew, and my mom's a WASP, so that should pretty much say it all. It was a comically dysfunctional family.

  

  Lake Bell
  • Family
  • Pretty
  • Dad

• All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.

  

  Walt Disney
  • True
  • Courage
  • Dreams

• Some people call it the 'Al Jazeera spirit' - courage, re-thinking authority, giving a voice to the voiceless. We have never been favored by the authority. The human being is the center of our editorial policy. We are not a TV station that rushes after stars, big names, press conferences, hand-shake journalism.

  

  Wadah Khanfar
  • People
  • Thinking
  • Giving

• My favorite soundtrack is 'Avatar.' It's the best thing in the world. I love it.

  

  Sam Smith
  • World
  • Love
  • Best

• Fiction should be about moral dilemmas that are so bloody difficult that the author doesn't know the answer.

  

  Pat Barker
  • Know
  • Moral
  • Difficult

• When I was immobilized by fear, I might have a panic attack. I've had a couple of panic attacks in my life.

  

  Gail Sheehy
  • Life
  • Fear
  • Couple

• I don't think the label makes the artist or the artist makes the label. It's the music that makes everything work or not.

  

  Garth Brooks
  • Work
  • Music
  • Artist

• My aunt took me to see 'Salad Days' when I was seven. This story of a magic piano that infects everyone who hears it infected me, too. It was a Road to Damascus moment in my life.

  

  Cameron Mackintosh
  • Life
  • Road
  • Magic

• See, the SAG awards caught me totally by surprise.

  

  Patricia Clarkson
  • See
  • Surprise
  • Awards

• I hate shaving. It's much easier to just do a little stubble, but my wife and daughter like it when I'm clean-shaven. If you see me with a clean face, then you know I'm in the kissing mode!

  

  Patrick Dempsey
  • Hate
  • Wife
  • Daughter

• The father of a daughter is nothing but a high-class hostage. A father turns a stony face to his sons, berates them, shakes his antlers, paws the ground, snorts, runs them off into the underbrush, but when his daughter puts her arm over his shoulder and says, 'Daddy, I need to ask you something,' he is a pat of butter in a hot frying pan.

  

  Garrison Keillor
  • High
  • Father
  • Daughter

• Too many actors get on an ego trip and won't do commercials, so they sit around for 20 years between jobs.

  

  Vic Tayback
  • Years
  • Ego
  • Sit

• Having principled men and women in office is how you protect yourself from tyranny, and that was something I learned from when I was 2, 3, 5 years old.

  

  Ted Cruz
  • Men
  • Women
  • Yourself

• Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians - you are not like him.

  

  Mahatma Gandhi
  • Jesus
  • Religion
  • Him

• If I had my druthers, I would be a brain in a jar, with a burlap skirt around the cart I'm on - I don't attend to my physical being much.

  

  Kate McKinnon
  • Brain
  • Being
  • Physical

• I'd love to do something on 'Mad Men' and 'Boardwalk Empire.' I really like period stuff.

  

  Jeremy Allen White
  • Men
  • Period
  • Mad

• Social media has come a long way. With the good has come some bad, and you always have a lot of people hiding behind their computers and being very critical of what you do on and off the field, of what you tweet, of what you say, of everything you do.

  

  Alex Morgan
  • People
  • Good
  • Long

• I have played a few lay saints in my time.

  

  Pauline Collins
  • Time

• I remember once when I told Lindsay Anderson at a party that acting was just a sophisticated way of playing cowboys and Indians he almost had a fit.

  

  John Hurt
  • Remember
  • Party

• Effort should be made to see that the forum-type programs (the 'Today Show,' 'Meet the Press,' etc.) afford at least as much opportunity for supporters of the American system to participate as these programs do for those who attack it.

  

  Lewis F. Powell, Jr.
  • American
  • Today
  • Opportunity

• I have long been convinced that the idea of liberty is abhorrent to most human beings. What they want is security, not freedom. Thus it seldom causes any public indignation when an enterprising tyrant claps down on one of his enemies. To most men it seems a natural proceeding.

  

  H. L. Mencken
  • Men
  • Long
  • Freedom