A great nation is any mob of people which produces at least one honest man a century.
Interpretation
A great nation can be defined by the presence of integrity among its people.
H. L. Mencken's quote suggests that the moral fabric of a society can be gauged by the existence of individuals who exhibit honesty and integrity. Even if only a few such people emerge over the course of a century, it reflects positively on the nation as a whole and underscores the importance of ethical conduct in the broader context of societal values.
In practice
A keynote speech about the importance of honesty in governance could use this quote.
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.
Religious phenomena are naturally arranged in two fundamental categories: beliefs and rites. The first are states of opinion, and consist in representations; the second are determined modes of action.
It's personal freedom, not hundred dollar bills that lights the soul's cigar.
In relation to God, we are like a thief who has burgled the house of a kindly householder and been allowed to keep some of the gold. From the point of view of the lawful owner this gold is a gift; Form the point of view of the burglar it is a theft. He must go and give it back. It is the same with our existence. We have stolen a little of God's being to make it ours. God has made us a gift of it. But we have stolen it. We must return it.
To believe only possibilities is not faith, but mere Philosophy.
Racism is endemic to the human condition, just as stupidity is. We will always have to be on guard against it. But now it is recognized as a scourge, as the crowning immorality of our age and our history.
Personally, I'd have welcomed a dementor attack. A deadly struggle for my soul would have broken the monotony nicely.
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