“The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic.”

— H.L. Mencken

323
1940s–present, Minority Report : H.L. Mencken's Notebooks (1956)
Source: Minority Report

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 14, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiot…" by H.L. Mencken?

H.L. Mencken 281

American journalist and writer 1880–1956

Related quotes

“When a man ain't got no ideas of his own, he'd ought to be kind o' careful who he borrows 'em from.”

Owen Wister book The Virginian

Source: The Virginian

““What kind of idiot do you think I am?”
”I have no idea what kind of idiot you are,” Miss Jesczenka said. “That’s why I’m asking.””

M. K. Hobson (1969) American writer

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 8, “Chaos and Disorder” (p. 133)

“The idea that God’s Providence means that he looks after those who serve him by a special use of his power in terms of favoritism is an immoral idea and insulting to both man and God. No true Christian wants to opt out of the trials that beset others, and no worthy idea of God could include his establishment of a kind of insurance scheme by which, if God be worshiped, cancer, for example, could be avoided.”

Leslie Weatherhead (1893–1976) English theologian

Source: The Christian Agnostic (1965), p.208-209

“At the words “his philosophy, my philosophy,” one is always reminded of that line in Nathan: … “What kind of God is it who belongs to a man?””

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel (1772–1829) German poet, critic and scholar

Bei den Ausdrücken, „Seine Philosophie”, „Meine Philosophie”, erinnert man sich immer an die Worte im Nathan: „Wem eignet Gott? Was ist das für ein Gott, der einem Menschen eignet?”
Lucinde and the Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991) § 99, reference is to Lessing, Nathan der Weise

“A dreamer, a good man, a kind man who cared less for his plan than for the people in it.”

Orson Scott Card Hart's Hope

Hart's Hope (1983)

“Man is always ready to die for an idea, provided that idea is not quite clear to him.”

Paul Eldridge (1888–1982) American writer

Quoted in Reader's Digest, (February 1963) http://books.google.com/books?id=K3c6AQAAIAAJ&q=%22Man+is+always+ready+to+die+for+an+idea+provided+that+idea+is+not+quite+clear+to+him%22&pg=PA37#v=onepage
Quote s