Minority Report. HL Mencken. Significant Sentences 02.

Significant sentences from HL Mencken's Minority Report, acerbic thoughts on American life and culture. 02.

"A strong government always wars on the superior man." p. 7.

"No human being can continue on the higher planes of thought for any great length of time." p. 10.

"I have sat in my time on what might plausibly be described as relatively profound discussion...have noticed that their profundity was a matter of occasional flames; most of the time the debate went on on much lower levels." p. 10.

"What they [average people] mistake for thought is simply repetition of what they have heard." p. 10.

"My guess is that well over 80% of the human race goes through life without ever having a single original thought." p. 10.

"Human life is basically a comedy." p. 11.

"A man who can laugh, if only at himself, is never really miserable." p. 11.

"To fight seems to be as natural to man as to eat." p. 12.

"The thing constantly overlooked by those hopefuls who talk of abolishing war is that it is by no means an evidence of decay but rather a proof of health and vigor." p. 12.

"...war is a natural revolt against the necessary but extremely irksome discipline of civilization...." p. 13.

"He [the soldier] is, in war, in the position of a free adult; in peace he is almost always in the position of a child." p. 14.