Life is a dead-end street.

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.

also attributed to H L Mencken

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

A Little Book in C Major, 1916

Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage.

The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy!

—H L Mencken
Notes on Democracy, 1926

All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

—Alfred E Smith
speech, Albany NY, June 27, 1933

The best cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy.

—Edward Abbey