Quotes sent to me by Lester Norvell, Good Friend!

--H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920

QUOTE

"When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the  fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is  done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark  with the pack or be lost... All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly  disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the  office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain  folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

Quote

"The fact is that the average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth. He is not actually happy  when free; he is uncomfortable, a bit alarmed, and intolerably lonely. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. 

 It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. 

It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty — and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies."

Lester Norvell