“His technical equipment consists simply of an armamentarium of deceits”
On elected politicians
1920s, Notes on Democracy (1926)
Context: Ostensibly he is an altruist devoted whole-heartedly to the service of his fellow-men, and so abjectly public-spirited that his private interest is nothing to him. Actually, he is a sturdy rogue whose principal, and often sole aim in life is to butter his parsnips. His technical equipment consists simply of an armamentarium of deceits. It is his business to get and hold his job at all costs. If he can hold it by lying he will hold it by lying. if lying peters out he will try and hold it by embracing new truths. His ear is ever close to the ground.
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H.L. Mencken281
American journalist and writer 1880–1956Related quotes
Nicolás Gómez Dávila (1913–1994) Colombian writer and philosopher
Sucesivos Escolios a un Texto Implícito (1992)
“Rochester: [checking his equipment] Shaving cream, brush, razor, smelling salts.”
Jack Benny (1894–1974) comedian, vaudeville performer, and radio, television, and film actor
The Jack Benny Program (Radio: 1932-1955), The Jack Benny Program (Television: 1950-1965)
Andrew Dickson White (1832–1918) American politician
Source: Seven Great Statesmen in the Warfare of Humanity with Unreason (1915), p. 59
Edwin Hubble (1889–1953) American astronomer
[Hubble, Edwin, 1929, May, The Exploration of Space, Harper's Magazine, 158, 732]
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) Russian composer, pianist, and conductor
Eric Blom (ed.) Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th edn. (London: Macmillan, 1954) vol. 7, p. 27.
Criticism
George Trumbull Ladd (1842–1921) American psychologist, educator and philosopher
The Teacher's Practical Philosophy (1911), page 18
Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) American author and polymath
"Robert Anton Wilson on Wilhelm Reich" (March 1995)
Context: He {Wilhelm Reich} had a great capacity to arouse irrational hatred obviously, and that's because his ideas were radical in the most extreme sense of the word "radical." His ideas have something to offend everybody, and he ended up becoming the only heretic in American history whose books were literally burned by the government.
Timothy Leary spent five years in prison for unorthodox scientific ideas. Ezra Pound spent 13 years in a nuthouse for unorthodox political and economic ideas. Their books were not burned.
Reich was not only thrown in prison, but they chopped up all the scientific equipment in his laboratory with axes and burned all of his books in an incinerator. Now that interests me as a civil liberties issue.
When I started studying Reich's works, I went through a period of enthusiasm, followed by a period of skepticism, followed by a period of just continued interest, but I think a lot of his ideas probably were sound. A lot probably were unsound. And, I'm not a Reichian in the sense of somebody who thinks he was the greatest scientist who ever lived and discovered the basic secrets of psychology, physics and everything else, all in one lifetime. But I think he has enough sound ideas that his unpopular ideas deserve further investigation.
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution
Reported by I. U. Annenkov in an article entitled, "Remembrances of Lenin", Novyi Zhurnal/New Review (September 1961), p. 147.
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