Whenever A annoys or injures B on the pretense of saving or improving X, A is a scoundrel.
Interpretation
The quote critiques those who harm others under the guise of doing good.
H. L. Mencken's quote highlights the hypocrisy in human behavior where individuals justify their harmful actions to others by claiming they are acting for the greater good. It underscores the moral dilemma that arises when intentions are masked by a veneer of altruism, suggesting that such justifications often reveal a lack of integrity in the person taking action.
In practice
Using this quote in a discussion about ethics in political decisions.
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.
Every four years, the eyes of America become riveted on the national election returns. But God's first concern during any political season is not the same as our first concern - it is not about what is happening, or going to happen, in the White House. God's first concern is what is happening, or not happening, in His house.
If we can stay with the tension of_x000D_ opposites long enough —sustain it,_x000D_ be true to it—we can sometimes_x000D_ become vessels within which the_x000D_ divine opposites come together and_x000D_ give birth to a new reality.
A vow is a purely religious act which cannot be taken in a fit of passion. It can be taken only with a mind purified and composed and with God as witness.
It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.
I am an Anglo-Catholic in religion, a classicist in literature and a royalist in politics.
But I am not going to live for ever. And the more I know it, the more amazed I am by being here at all.
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