H. L. Mencken Quotes About Evil

• I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.

  H. L. Mencken

  Life, Wise, Believe

• The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Evil

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.154, Vintage

• A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.

  H. L. Mencken

  Family, Children, School

  H.L. Mencken “A little book in C major”, Рипол Классик

• Evil: That which one believes of others. It is a sin to believe evil of others, but it is seldom a mistake

  H. L. Mencken

  Mistake, Believe, Evil

  A Little Book in C Major ch. 5 (1916)

• The doctrine that the cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy is like saying that the cure of crime is more crime.

  H. L. Mencken

  Evil, Democracy, Doctrine

• To believe that Russia has got rid of the evils of capitalism takes a special kind of mind. It is the same kind of mind that believes that a Holy Roller has got rid of sin.

  H. L. Mencken

  Believe, Russia, Evil

• Evil is that which one believes of others.

  H. L. Mencken

  Believe, Evil

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.617, Vintage

• Under the pressure of fanaticism, and with the mob complacently applauding the show, democratic law tends more and more to be grounded upon the maxim that every citizen is, by nature, a traitor, a libertine, and a scoundrel. In order to dissuade him from his evil-doing the police power is extended until it surpasses anything ever heard of in the oriental monarchies of antiquity.

  H. L. Mencken

  Order, Law, Evil

  H. L. Mencken (2013). “Notes On Democracy”, p.45, Read Books Ltd

• The most curious social convention of the great age in which we live is the one to the effect that religious opinions should be respected. Its evil effects must be plain enough to everyone. All it accomplishes is (a) to throw a veil of sanctity about ideas that violate every intellectual decency, and (b) to make every theologian a sort of chartered libertine. No doubt it is mainly to blame for the appalling slowness with which really sound notions make their way in the world.

  H. L. Mencken

  Religious, Ideas, Evil

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.80, Vintage

• I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war on liberty, and that the democratic government is at least as bad as any of the other forms.

  H. L. Mencken

  War, Believe, Government

• One of the main purposes of laws in a democratic society is to put burdens upon intelligence and reduce it to impotence. Ostensibly, their aim is to penalize anti-social acts; actually their aim is to penalize heretical opinions. At least ninety-five Americans out of every 100 believe that this process is honest and even laudable; it is practically impossible to convince them that there is anything evil in it. In other words, they cannot grasp the concept of liberty.

  H. L. Mencken

  Business, Believe, Law

  "Liberty and Democracy". Baltimore Evening Sun (April 13, 1925) as quoted in "A Second Mencken Chrestomathy: A New Selection from the Writings of America's Legendary Editor, Critic, and Wit" edited by Terry Teachout (p. 35), 1994.

• During many a single week, I daresay, more money is spent in New York upon useless and evil things than would suffice to run the kingdom of Denmark for a year.

  H. L. Mencken

  Running, New York, Years

  H. L. Mencken (1924). “Prejudices Fourth Series”

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