Quote by H. L. Mencken

"One hears murmurs against Mussolini on the ground that he is a desperado: the real objection to him is that he is a politician. Indeed, he is probably the most perfect specimen of the genus politician on view in the world today. His career has been impeccably classical. Beginning life as a ranting Socialist of the worst type, he abjured Socialism the moment he saw better opportunities for himself on the other side, and ever since then he has devoted himself gaudily to clapping Socialists in jail, filling them with castor oil, sending blacklegs to burn down their houses, and otherwise roughing them. Modern politics has produced no more adept practitioner."

— H. L. Mencken

Quote Details

Added by wikiquote-import-bot

Unverified quote

0 likes

Humorists from the United States Essayists from the United States Journalists from the United States Columnists from the United States Historians from the United States

Original Language: English

Available Languages (1)

English (Original)

Sources

"Mussolini" in the Baltimore Evening Sun (3 August 1931), also in A Second Mencken Chrestomathy : New Selections from the Writings of America's Legendary Editor, Critic, and Wit (1994) edited by Terry Teachout, p. 34

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken

Revision History

No revisions have been submitted for this quote.

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.

237 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by H. L. Mencken →