
“It is better to make mistakes than to lie idle.”
#13780, Part 14
Seventy Seven Thousand Service-Trees series 1-50 (1998)
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 345.
“It is better to make mistakes than to lie idle.”
#13780, Part 14
Seventy Seven Thousand Service-Trees series 1-50 (1998)
Source: Liberalism (1911), Chapter IX, The Future Of Liberalism, p. 118.
“It's better to stand by someone's side than by yourself”
As prime minister in the House of Assembly, 23 April 1979, as cited in PW Botha in his own words, Pieter-Dirk Uys, 1987, p. 40
Speech at the U.S. Congress https://web.archive.org/web/20130704215008/http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Text-of-PM-Binyamin-Netanyahus-speech-to-the-US-Congress (May 24, 2011).
2010s, 2011, Address to joint meeting of the U.S. Congress (May 2011)
“It is better to be poor and walk in integrity than to be stupid and speak lies.”
Proverbs 19:1 http://www.jw.org/en/publications/bible/nwt/books/proverbs/19/
“A man cannot have a better guide than himself, nor any physic better than a regular life.”
Discourses on the Sober Life
“Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.”
As quoted in The Common School Journal and Educational Reformer (1852), edited by William B. Fowle, p. 28.
Context: Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army. If we retrench the wages of the schoolmaster, we must raise those of the recruiting sergeant.
“The call to religion is not a call to be better than your fellows, but to be better than yourself.”
Source: Life Thoughts (1858), p. 18
"What I Believe" in The Forum 84 (September 1930), p. 139; some of these expressions were also used separately in other Mencken essays.
1930s
Context: I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind — that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.
I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious.
I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war upon liberty and the democratic form is as bad as any of the other forms.
I believe that the evidence for immortality is no better than the evidence of witches, and deserves no more respect.
I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech — alike for the humblest man and the mightiest, and in the utmost freedom of conduct that is consistent with living in organized society.
I believe in the capacity of man to conquer his world, and to find out what it is made of, and how it is run.
I believe in the reality of progress.
I —But the whole thing, after all, may be put very simply. I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.