# Quote — H.L. Mencken, Minority Report

> My guess is that well over eighty per cent of the human race goes through life without ever having a single original thought. That is to say, they never think anything that has not been thought before, and by thousands.
>
> A society made up of individuals who were all capable of original thought would probably be unendurable. The pressure of ideas would simply drive it frantic. The normal human society is very little troubled by them. Whenever a new one appears the average man displays signs of dismay and resentment. The only way he can take in such a new idea is by translating it crudely into terms of more familiar ideas. That translation is one of the chief functions of politicians, not to mention journalists. They devote themselves largely to debasing the ideas launched by their betters. This debasement is intellectually reprehensible, but probably necessary to carry on the business of the world.

- Author: [H.L. Mencken](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken.md)
- Book: [Minority Report](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/minority-report.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken#Minority_Report_:_H.L._Mencken's_Notebooks_(1956)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Topics: [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md), [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md)
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/minority-report/my-guess-is-that

## More from this book

> My old suggestion that public offices be filled by drawing lots, as a jury box is filled, was probably more intelligent than I suspected. It has been criticized on the ground that selecting a man at random would probably produce some extremely bad State governors. [...] But I incline to believe that it would be best to choose members of the Legislature quite at random. No matter how stupid they were, they could not be more stupid than the average legislator under the present system. Certainly, they'd be measurably more honest, taking one with another. Finally, there would be the great advantage that all of them had got their jobs unwillingly, and were eager, not to spin out their sessions endlessly, but to get home as soon as possible.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/minority-report/my-old-suggestion.md)

Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md)

> Government, like any other organism, refuses to acquiesce in its own extinction. This refusal, of course, involves the resistance to any effort to diminish its powers and prerogatives. There has been no organized effort to keep government down since Jefferson's day. Ever since then the American people have been bolstering up its powers and giving it more and more jurisdiction over their affairs. They pay for that folly in increased taxes and diminished liberties. No government as such is ever in favor of the freedom of the individual. It invariably seeks to limit that freedom, if not by overt denial, then by seeking constantly to widen its own functions.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/minority-report/government-like-any.md)

Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [power](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power.md), [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md)

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

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/minority-report/the-kind-of-man.md)

Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [stupidity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stupidity.md)