Words to live by...or be amused by

The quote posted at the bottom of the right hand column is a small snippet of a larger passage known as "Mencken's Creed." Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956) is recognized as one of America's most prominent journalists when being a journalist actually meant something. Frequently bumping heads with the east coast establishment, he penned many a satirical passage lambasting the powers that be. He is labeled more as a libertarian than a conservative and despised politicians, evangelists, Puritans of all stripes, and stupidity in all forms. He is one of the more politically incorrect commentators of the human condition. The rest of the creed is as follows:

• 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...

• 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...
  

• 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.