Autor: H.L.Menken,
the quotable Bard of Baltimore who always hit the nail on the head ....
An altruistic politician
is quite as unthinkable
as an honest burglar.
The whole aim of practical politics
is to keep the populace alarmed
(and hence clamorous to be led to safety)
by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins,
all of them imaginary.*
I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind - that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.
I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.
