Quotes for the Misanthropist
Stupidity
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. --Albert Einstein
The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. --Albert Einstein
The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen...and stupidity.. --Harlan Ellison
There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life. --Frank Zappa
The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to contemplate the extent of human stupidity. --Voltaire
It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man. -- H. L. Mencken
"No one in this world, so far as I know, has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people." -- Mencken
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. -- Mencken
It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull. -- Mencken
Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and formal education positively fortifies it. -- Stephen Vizinczey
Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped. -- Elbert Hubbard
Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power. -- P. J. O'Rourke
Artificial Intelligence is no match for natural stupidity. -unknown
Greed
If we go on the way we have, the fault is our greed and if we are not willing to change, we will disappear from the face of the globe, to be replaced by the insect. -- Jacques Cousteau
There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed. -- Mohandas Gandhi
Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain. -- Niccolo Machiavelli
We are all born brave, trusting and greedy, and most of us remain greedy. -- Mignon McLaughlin
The point is that you can't be too greedy. -- Donald Trump
Self-righteousness
Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. -- Charlotte Bronte
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction. -- Blaise Pascal
The trouble with Communism is the Communists, just as the trouble with Christianity is the Christians. -- Mencken
Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. -- Mencken
A man full of faith is simply one who has lost (or never had) the capacity for clear and realistic thought. He is not a mere ass; he is actually ill. Worse, he is incurable. --Mencken
Sunday: A day given over by Americans to wishing that they themselves were dead and in Heaven, and that their neighbors were dead and in Hell.-- Mencken
Sunday School: A prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents. --Mencken
For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing. -- Mencken
Selfishness
It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes. -- Andrew Jackson
It disturbs me no more to find men base, unjust, or selfish than to see apes mischievous, wolves savage, or the vulture ravenous. Jean-Paul Sartre
All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today. -- Pope Paul VI
I think Bush has a very selfish, arrogant point of view. I think he is interested in power, I think he believes his truth is the only truth, and that he will do what he wants to do despite the people. -- Harry Belafonte
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. -- John Kenneth Galbraith
Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Selfishness is the only real atheism; aspiration, unselfishness, the only real religion. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt
Sloth
Government: Of the morons, by the greedy, for the profit.
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. -- Menken
Congress consists of one third, more or less, scoundrels; two thirds, more or less, idiots; and three thirds, more or less, poltroons. -- Menken
If I had my way, any man guilty of golf would be ineligible for any office of trust in the United States. -- Menken
Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good. -- Menken
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. -- Menken
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it and then misapplying the wrong remedies. -- Groucho Marx
More from Mencken
Idealist: One who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.
Morality: The theory that every human act must either be right or wrong, and that 99% of them are wrong.
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.
A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.
A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.
All [zoos] actually offer to the public in return for the taxes spent upon them is a form of idle and witless amusement, compared to which a visit to a penitentiary, or even to a State legislature in session, is informing, stimulating and ennobling.
Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.
Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking
Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
Criticism is prejudice made plausible.
It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.
Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics or chemistry.
A celebrity is one who is known to many persons he is glad he doesn't know.
Misogynist: A man who hates women as much as women hate one another.
Platitude: an idea (a) that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b) that is not true.
Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.
The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.
War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands.
The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.
It is a sin to believe evil of others, but it is seldom a mistake.
What Other Attributes Make Humans Scum?
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