All (zoos) actually offer to the public in return for the taxes spent upon them is a form of idle and witless amusement, compared to which a visit to a penitentiary, or even to a State legislature in session, is informing, stimulating and ennobling.
More Quotes from Henry Mencken:
Creator a comedian whose audience is afraid to laugh.Henry Mencken
He uses his sources as a drunkard uses lampposts not to light him upon his way, but to dissimulate his instability
Henry Mencken
Philosophy first constructs a scheme of happiness and then tries to fit the world to it
Henry Mencken
We suffer most when the White House busts with ideas
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It is Hell, of course, that makes priests powerful, not Heaven, for after thousands of years of so-called civilization fear remains the one common denominator of mankind
Henry Mencken
The trouble with Communism is the Communists, just as the trouble with Christianity is the Christians
Henry Mencken
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Based on Topics: Idleness Quotes, Pleasure Quotes, Tax QuotesBased on Keywords: ennobling, penitentiary, witless, zoos
In my solitude I have pondered much on the incomprehensible subjects of space, eternity, life and death.
Alfred Russel Wallace
About the use of language: it is impossible to sharpen a pencil with a blunt axe. It is equally vain to try to do it with ten blunt axes instead.
Edsger Dijkstra
If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.
Calvin Coolidge