No one in this world, so far as I know - and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me - has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that those who underestimate the common people's intelligence do not usually suffer financial loss.
H. L. Mencken suggests that throughout history, many have erroneously believed that they could take advantage of the naivety of the general populace. He argues that, contrary to what some might assume, the masses possess an inherent intelligence and awareness that savvy individuals should respect, leading to the idea that financial missteps often occur when one fails to recognize this reality.
In practice
In a discussion about marketing strategies, this quote can illustrate the importance of respecting consumer intelligence.
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 try to take care_x000D_ and be gentle to them._x000D_ Words and eggs must be handled with care._x000D_ Once broken they are impossible things to repair.
Some of the animals outsee man, outsmell him, outhear him, outrun him, outswim him, because their lives depend more upon these special powers than his does; but he can outwit them all because he has the resourcefulness of reason and is at home in many different fields.
To see the best before I have properly begun would be somewhat premature.
I am grateful for all those dark years, even though in retrospect they seem like a long, bitter prayer that was answered finally.
Knowledge is like money: to be of value it must circulate, and in circulating it can increase in quantity and, hopefully, in value.
I have the same confidence in the ability of our people to reject noxious literature as I have in their capacity to sort out the true from the false in theology, economics, or any other field.
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