The military caste did not originate as a party of patriots, but as a party of bandits
Interpretation
The military class began as a group of lawless individuals rather than true patriots.
H. L. Mencken's quote suggests that the military caste, often revered for its role in protecting a nation, originally emerged from a more dubious background marked by banditry rather than genuine patriotism. This perspective challenges the conventional glorification of military forces, instead highlighting the complex and sometimes morally ambiguous origins of those who are tasked with wielding power and authority in a society.
In practice
Discussing the historical roots of military institutions in a philosophy class.
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.
What is food to one man is bitter poison to others.
Thus we have given to man a pedigree of prodigious length, but not, it may be said, of noble quality.
Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.
Man is a complex being: he makes deserts bloom - and lakes die.
Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust, or flattery soothe the dull, cold ear of death?
He who has attained the freedom of reason to any extent cannot, for a long time, regard himself otherwise than as a wanderer on the face of the earth - and not even as a traveler towards a final goal, for there is no such thing. But he certainly wants to observe and keep his eyes open to whatever actually happens in the world; therefore he cannot attach his heart too firmly to anything individual; he must have in himself something wandering that takes pleasure in change and transitoriness.
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