In the United States, doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favorite device of persons with something to sell.
Interpretation
Mencken critiques the commercialization of altruism and patriotism in American society.
In this quote, H. L. Mencken observes that the act of doing good, much like expressing patriotism, has become a tool exploited by individuals seeking to promote their own interests or agendas. He suggests that what is often presented as genuine goodwill may actually be a superficial facade used to gain favor, sell products, or manipulate public perception.
In practice
During a discussion on the influence of marketing in social initiatives, this quote can highlight the misconception that altruism is always selfless.
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.
In our culture, snails are not considered valiant animals - we are constantly exhorting people to "come out of their shells" - but there's a lot to be said for taking your home with you wherever you go.
Government is a necessary evil
None are so poor that they have nothing to give...and none are so rich that they have nothing to receive.
Peitaho Heavy rains fall on Yuyen, the northland kingdom of swallows. White pages of rain envelop the sky, and fishing boats off the Island of the Emperor Chin disappear on the ocean. Which way have they gone? More than a thousand years ago the mighty emperor Tsao Tsao cracked his whip and drove his army against the Tartars. He left us a poem: "Let us move east to the Stone Mountains." Today we still shiver in the autumn gale, in desolate winds, yet another man is in the world.
To pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself. Whenever a man so concentrates his attention - on a landscape, a poem, a geometrical problem, an idol, or the True God - that he completely forgets his own ego and desires, he is praying. The primary task of the schoolteacher is to teach children, in a secular context, the technique of prayer.
There have been in this century only one great man and one great thing: Napoleon and liberty. For want of the great man, let us have the great thing.
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