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.
Interpretation
The quote critiques the contradiction between the principles of government and their actual practices regarding citizens' freedoms.
H. L. Mencken's quote highlights a fundamental paradox in modern governance, where the theoretical framework promotes the protection of individual liberties while, in practice, these liberties are often restricted. This contradiction raises questions about the sincerity of governmental promises to uphold personal freedoms and challenges citizens to scrutinize the extent of their rights and the limitations imposed by those in power.
In practice
In a speech about civil rights, one might use this quote to illustrate the ongoing struggle for true freedom.
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
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 poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child.
If a man can permanently establish his awareness in contact with that pure field (of consciousness), then problems wither away. It's a very simple thing. When the light comes, then where is the darkness?
New York is the only real city-city.
What's in store for me in the direction I don't take?
Sane is rich and powerful. Insane is wrong and poor and weak. The rich are free, the poor are put in cages. Res Ipsa Loquitur, amen. Mahalo.
No philosopher understands his predecessors until he has re-thought their thought in his own contemporary terms.
If you want to save capitalism there is only one type of argument that you should adopt, the only one that has ever won in any moral issue: the argument from self-esteem. Check your premises, convince yourself of the rightness of your cause, then fight for capitalism with full, moral certainty.
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