If experience teaches us anything at all, it teaches us this: that a good politician, under democracy, is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that good politicians are as rare as honest burglars within a democratic system.
H. L. Mencken satirically comments on the nature of politics and the moral compromises often required in a democratic society. By comparing honest politicians to honest burglars, he implies that integrity is so seldom found in politics that it seems almost impossible, emphasizing the corruption and ethical failings that can arise in the pursuit of power and success within such a system.
In practice
In a discussion about the political climate, one could use this quote to illustrate the common skepticism towards politicians.
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 happen to think that American politics is one of the noblest arts of mankind; and I cannot do anything else but write about it.
The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting.
There is no longer a clear, bright line dividing America's domestic concerns and America's foreign policy concerns...If we want America to stay on the right track, if we want other people to be on that track and have the chance to enjoy peace and prosperity, we have no choice but to try to lead the train.
People who have no respect for human life or for freedom or justice have taken over this beautiful country of ours. It will be up to the American people to take it back.
American radicals cannot afford to become their own worst enemies. In unity lies their only hope.
There is no right government except good government.
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