H. L. Mencken Quotes

Shave a gorilla and it would be almost impossible, at twenty paces, to distinguish him from a heavyweight champion of the world. Skin a chimpanzee, and it would take an autopsy to prove he was not a theologian.

H. L. Mencken

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Quotes to Explore

• I can enjoy anywhere, and I can leave it. Life is about moving on.

  

  Waris Dirie
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• If you're in a dark place, you're there for a reason. And the only way to get through to those kids or to other people going through the same thing is really to meet them in that dark place and then slowly bring them to the light.

  

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• In 1958, my father invested everything he had in a business venture and became the largest automobile dealership in Chicago for Ford's new Edsel line. But Edsel sales plummeted and my father fell into bankruptcy. I watched him struggle; working long hours to protect us from poverty.

  

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• Americans are really obsessed with their teeth being white and straight, aren't they? I saw this little girl the other day with one of those whole head braces. Elastic all the way around! How traumatizing for a child to have to wear one of those! You look like a monster.

  

  Kate Moss
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• We have established a new basis in our country in which economic liberalization would continue to flourish alongside democratic forces and deregulated power structure.

  

  Ibrahim Babangida
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• I believe that I have been basically anarchistic, anti-religion and anti-industry and business. In other words, anti-bureaucracy. I would like to see people behave well without having to have priests stand by, politicians stand by, or people collecting bills.

  

  B. F. Skinner
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• I always put my fantasies in the realm of goals.

  

  O. J. Simpson
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• One of the greatest gifts I've ever gotten is my daughter.

  

  Ace Frehley Kiss
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• When you love something, it doesn't feel like work.

  

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• In our family health, it's about having a balanced life, about laughing and staying on a positive note.

  

  Victoria Osteen
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• A lot has happened over the years. And while this nation has been tested by war, and it's been tested by recession and all manner of challenges - I stand before you again tonight, after almost two terms as your president, to tell you I am more optimistic about the future of America than ever before.

  

  Barack Obama
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• When I hear theists and atheists pontificating on how they know God does or does not exist, I can only smile at the irrationality and, yes, vanity of the notion.

  

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• I was raised on the streets, in hot, steamy Brooklyn, with stifled air.

  

  Barbra Streisand
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• I'm wondering how many elected figures any of us could find who do not, in the front or back of their minds, remember who does them favors, who doesn't.

  

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• That's the reality of my life - I do normal things and then get to go to film festivals and wear borrowed clothes and turn up at premieres and talk about things I am passionate about. But then you click back to normality and your family and friends.

  

  Eddie Redmayne
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• My mother taught me about the power of inspiration and courage, and she did it with a strength and a passion that I wish could be bottled.

  

  Carly Fiorina
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• If you want to get across an idea, wrap it up in person.

  

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• I know I always had a lot of energy growing up and I had to put it somewhere. Theater allowed me to really feel things, to laugh, to cry, to explode outward. I could do anything and it was totally accepted and appreciated. If I hadn't gone into the theater, I probably would have been a psychotic killer.

  

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• I have to show off my struggle so that people accept that I'm black. No matter that every single room I go to, I'm usually the darkest person there... I kind of resent that mentality. I'm just an individual.

  

  Daniel Kaluuya
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• As a 25-year-old banker, I decided to leave my career and change the world. This sounds like a move that a 25-year-old banker might make today - to escape the chaos.

  

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• I believe there's no such thing as history; there's only historians, and in English, we've got this word 'his'tory, but what about her story? So that, in the end, the history of the world would be a history of every single one of its members, but of course, you could never get to grips with that.

  

  Peter Greenaway
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• There is one thing in the world more wicked than the desire to command, and that is the will to obey.

  

  William Kingdon Clifford
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• I believe that national sovereignties will shrink in the face of universal interdependence.

  

  Jacques Yves Cousteau
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• Shave a gorilla and it would be almost impossible, at twenty paces, to distinguish him from a heavyweight champion of the world. Skin a chimpanzee, and it would take an autopsy to prove he was not a theologian.

  

  H. L. Mencken
  • World
  • Champion