A prohibitionist is the sort of man one couldn't care to drink with, even if he drank.
Interpretation
This quote humorously critiques prohibitionists, implying they are unlikable people even in their own drinking habits.
H. L. Mencken's quote illustrates a disdain for prohibitionists by suggesting that their strictness and moralizing make them undesirable companions, even if they were to partake in drinking themselves. It highlights the paradox of someone who campaigns against alcohol while simultaneously lacking the charm or appeal necessary for social drinking, emphasizing the absurdity of their stance.
In practice
In a debate about alcohol laws, one could use this quote to lighten the mood and critique prohibitionist attitudes.
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.
I always wanted to be more of a person that people enjoy. Somebody that will make you laugh. I'm talking about just my personality, not necessarily how my music sounds.
I can only assume that your editorial writer tripped over the First Amendment and thought it was the office cat.
If I blow my nose, it gets written all over the world.
Laughter is nothing else but sudden glory arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly.
You all watched a sketch about feminism and you didn't even know it because of all the jokes. It's like when Jessica Seinfeld puts spinach in kids' brownies. Suckers!
You can't map a sense of humor. Anyway, what is a fantasy map but a space beyond which There Be Dragons? On the Discworld we know that There Be Dragons Everywhere. They might not all have scales and forked tongues, but they Be Here all right, grinning and jostling and trying to sell you souvenirs.
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