Clergyman: A ticket speculator outside the gates of Heaven.
Interpretation
This quote critiques the role of religious figures, suggesting they profit from the hope of salvation.
H. L. Mencken's quote humorously depicts clergymen as opportunistic figures who capitalize on the spiritual aspirations of others, likening them to ticket speculators who profit from those seeking access to a desirable destinationβin this case, Heaven. This analogy invites reflection on the commercialization of faith and the potential moral implications of religious leadership.
In practice
This quote would serve well in a discussion about the commercialization of religion.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
I wonder if it hurts to live, And if they have to try, And whether, could they choose between, They would not rather die.
In a brutal country like ours, where human life is 'cheap', it's stupid to destroy yourself for the sake of your beliefs. Beliefs? High ideas? Only people in rich countries can enjoy such luxuries.
All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny.
Faith is a mockery if it does not teach us that we can build a more complete and beautiful world.
Many years ago, our father Ibrahim (AS) made a choice. He loved his son. But He loved God more. The commandment came to sacrifice his son. But it wasn't his son that was slaughtered. It was his attachment to anything that could compete with his love for God. So let us ask ourselves in these beautiful days of sacrifice, which attachments do we need to slaughter?
But you can't start. Only a baby can start. You and me - why, we're all that's been. The anger of a moment, the thousand pictures, that's us. This land, this red land, is us; and the flood years and the dust years and the drought years are us. We can't start again.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.