The highfalutin aims of democracy, whether real or imaginary, are always assumed to be identical with its achievements. This, of course, is sheer hal… - H. L. Mencken

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The highfalutin aims of democracy, whether real or imaginary, are always assumed to be identical with its achievements. This, of course, is sheer hallucination. Not one of those aims, not even the aim of giving every adult a vote, has been realized. It has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.

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About H. L. Mencken

Henry Louis Mencken (12 September 1880 – 29 January 1956), known as H. L. Mencken, was a twentieth-century journalist, satirist, social critic, cynic, and freethinker, known as the "Sage of Baltimore" and the "American Nietzsche". He is often regarded as one of the most influential American writers of the early 20th century.

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Alternative Names: Henry Louis Mencken
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Originators like H. L. Mencken:
George Bernard Shaw Christopher Hitchens Gore Vidal Edmund Burke G. K. Chesterton

Additional quotes by H. L. Mencken

A philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't there. A theologian is the man who finds it.
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