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Minority Report

"The most expensive thing on this earth is to believe in something that is palpably not true." "We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and hi

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H. L. Mencken (6)

“Penetrating so many secrets, we cease to believe in the unknowable. But there it sits nevertheless, calmly licking its chops.”

— H. L. Mencken, amazon.com

Tagged: Secrets, Unknowable

“The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic.”

— H. L. Mencken, amazon.com

Tagged: Government, Ideas, Idiotic

“It is often argued that religion is valuable because it makes men good, but even if this were true it would not be a proof that religion is true. That would be an extension of pragmatism beyond endurance. Santa Claus makes children good in precisely the same way, and yet no one would argue seriously…”

— H. L. Mencken, amazon.com

Tagged: Religion, Pragmatism, Santa Claus

“Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule—and both commonly succeed, and are right.”

— H. L. Mencken, amazon.com

Tagged: Democracy, Two-Party System

“We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.”

— H. L. Mencken, amazon.com

Tagged: Religion, Respect, Politeness

“The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. Power is what all messiahs really seek: not the chance to serve. This is true even of the pious brethren who carry the gospel to foreign parts.”

— H. L. Mencken, amazon.com

Tagged: Power, Messiah Complex, Savior Complex