A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that finding a genuinely good politician is as unlikely as finding an honest burglar.
H. L. Mencken's quote draws a parallel between the perceived moral failings of politicians and burglars, implying that just as we cannot expect a burglar to be honest, we should not expect politicians to be truly good. The hyperbolic comparison underscores a deep skepticism about the integrity of political figures, reflecting a common belief that power often corrupts and compromises moral character.
In practice
During a political debate, to highlight the challenges of trust in politicians.
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.
A constitution that is made for all nations is made for none.
The Koch brothers, through the expenditure of billions of dollars and the creation and support of dozens of extreme right organizations, have taken fringe extremist ideas and made them mainstream within the Republican Party.
Growing up in politics I know that women decide all elections because we do all the work.
This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.
If the many allegations made to this date are true, then the burglars who broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate were, in effect, breaking into the home of every citizen.
But let me perfectly clear, because I know you'll hear the same old claims that rolling back these tax breaks means a massive tax increase on the American people: if your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime.
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