Don't overestimate the decency of the human race.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that one should not assume that humans are inherently good or decent.
H. L. Mencken's quote serves as a caution against naively believing that humanity is fundamentally virtuous. It implies that while many people may exhibit kindness and morality, there is also a significant capacity for selfishness and immorality, urging a more realistic and sometimes skeptical view of human nature.
In practice
In a discussion about human behavior in sociology class.
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.
If everybody minded their own business... the world would go round a deal faster than it does.
Yoga is not a practice - the word 'yoga' means union. It does not mean standing on your head, twisting your body, or holding your breath. Yoga means to know the union of life. When you experience everything as a part of yourself, you are in yoga.
THEOSOPHY, n. An ancient faith having all the certitude of religion and all the mystery of science.
You can't retrieve you life (unless you're on Wikipedia, in which case you can retrieve an inaccurate version of it).
You like every one; that is to say, you are indifferent to every one.
For he who has died has been freed from sin...14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
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