The mistake that is made always runs the other way. Because the plain people are able to speak and understand, and even, in many cases, to read and write, it is assumed that they have ideas in their heads, and an appetite for more. This assumption is a folly.
Interpretation
This quote critiques the misconception that all people have complex ideas simply because they can communicate.
H. L. Mencken highlights a common error in assuming that the ability to communicate equates to deep understanding or intelligence. He suggests that just because many people can speak, read, and write, it doesn't mean they possess significant ideas or a desire for knowledge. This quote calls into question societal assumptions about intellect based solely on communication abilities.
In practice
In a discussion about education reform, one might say this quote to emphasize the need for deeper understanding rather than just literacy.
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.
Out of 6 billion humans, the troublemakers are just a handful.
Strongest minds are often those whom the noisy world hears least.
What does it avail you, if of many thorns only one be removed.
Who makes us ignorant? We ourselves. We put our hands over our eyes and weep that it is dark.
A diamond was laying in the street covered with dirt. Many fools passed by. Someone who knew diamonds picked it up.
When you are famous it is hard to work on small problems. This is what did [Claude Elwood] Shannon in. After information theory, what do you do for an encore? The great scientists often make this error. They fail to continue to plant the little acorns from which the mighty oak trees grow. They try to get the big thing right off. And that isn't the way things go. So that is another reason why you find that when you get early recognition it seems to sterilize you.
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