Mencken's Best Quote? Long Form And Short

H.L. Mencken

Wikiquote

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken

The Age-Old Normalization Of Warfare Through Stupidity, Ego And Religion

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-age-old-normalization-of-warfare.html

Alan: My friends cannot understand what is happening to American politics.

"How can it be" they marvel, "that half the population admires Donald Trump?!?"

To me, Trump is as predictable as sunrise.

What is marvelous -- what is miraculous -- is that some humans overcome their fondness for simian chest-thumping, replacing an apparent need for fear with love that is fearless.

 "There is no fear in love. 

But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. 
The one who fears is not made perfect in love."

1 John 4:18

Fear is defensible.

Justifications abound.

But relative to the love it displaces, fear is the greatest conceivable loss.

The saints speak with one voice: Ultimately there is nothing to protect.
And only when we disarm -- which is to say, only when we become disarming -- do we align with The Divine.

"Where our heart is, there also our treasure will be."

"Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect."

My Back Pages

Bob Dylan

My Back Pages

Performed by Dylan, McGuinn, Petty, Clapton, George Harrison and Neil Young

http://www.popscreen.com/v/9xeyg/Bob-Dylan-My-Back-Pages-From-the-30th-Anniversary-Concert

"Any Religion That Needs Fear To Thrive Is Bad Religion"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/02/any-religion-that-needs-fear-to-thrive.html

"Bad Religion: A Compendium"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/04/bad-religion-compendium.html

Good Religion And Bad Religion
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/02/bad-religion-and-good-religion.html

The entire chapter that flanks the above quotation can be read on pages 29 and 30 of "A Mencken Crestomathy: His Own Selection Of His Choicest Writings" at https://books.google.com/books?id=2Q19hMwsNgYC&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30&dq=ended+only+when+it+has+spent+its+ferine+fury&source=bl&ots=2ZucVAKFHZ&sig=Dh6FMIQ7FLsQZB8RtYN54lmUjNk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj3yLqg-4TNAhVIpR4KHVtrDEQQ6AEIKTAD#v=onepage&q=ended%20only%20when%20it%20has%20spent%20its%20ferine%20fury&f=false