There comes a time in every man's life when he's consumed by the desire to spit on his palms, hoist the black flag and start cutting throats.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a moment of intense frustration and a desire for rebellion against the status quo.
H. L. Mencken's quote captures a profound and tumultuous feeling that arises in individuals when faced with oppression or dissatisfaction. It speaks to the drastic measures one might consider when feeling powerless or overwhelmed, suggesting a yearning to break free from constraints and take action against perceived injustices or failures.
In practice
This quote can be used during a protest to emphasize a strong desire for change.
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'm interested in what motivates individuals to participate in atrocious acts to support their ideological identification.
You have no more anger when you are all love, bliss, infinite existence. . . .
Man became free when he recognized that he was subject to law.
In the calculus of western interests, there is no suffering, whatever its scale, which cannot be justified. Chechens, Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis are of little importance.
All sins are attempts to fill voids.
We have known for a long time that Prince Charles' empty sails are so rigged as to be swelled by any passing waft or breeze of crankiness and cant. He fell for the fake anthropologist Laurens van der Post. He was bowled over by the charms of homeopathic medicine. He has been believably reported as saying that plants do better if you talk to them in a soothing and encouraging way
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.