Law and its instrument, government, are necessary to the peace and safety of all of us, but all of us, unless we live the lives of mud turtles, frequently find them arrayed against us.
Interpretation
Laws and government are essential for societal peace, yet they can also feel oppressive to individuals.
In this quote, H. L. Mencken highlights the dual nature of law and government. While they are fundamental in maintaining order and ensuring safety for all, they can also become adversarial to individuals' freedoms and desires. The metaphor of 'mud turtles' suggests a life of complete retreat from society's complexities, implying that one must engage with these systems and recognize their potential conflict with personal liberties.
In practice
In a debate about civil rights, one might use this quote to illustrate the tension between individual freedoms and government laws.
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.
There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.
At times I feel myself overtaken by an immense tenderness for these people around me who live in the same century.
The ultimate foundation of a free society is the binding tie of cohesive sentiment.
Private appropriation of the Earth’s surface, the natural resources, and the means of life is nothing less a crime than a crime against humanity, but the comparative few who are beneficiaries of this iniquitous social arrangement, far from being viewed as criminals meriting punishment, are the exalted rulers of society, and the people they exploit gladly render them homage and obeisance.
Pride, envy, avarice - these are the sparks have set on fire the hearts of all men.
I am the son of the road , my country is a caravan and my life is the most unexpected of voyages. i belong to earth and to the god and it is to them that I will one day soon return
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