The average man doesn't want to be free. He simply wants to be safe.

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Political literature

The average man doesn't want to be free. He simply wants to be safe.

H.L. Mencken

Notes on Democracy · 1926

★ 6.1

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Topic

Downsides of freedom Freedom vs. safety Safety

Genre

Political literature

Time

1926

Person

H.L. Mencken

Provenance

Citation

Mencken, H. L. Notes on Democracy. Alfred A. Knopf, 1926, pt. 3, ch. 1.

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Lovely it is, when the winds are churning up the waves on the great sea, to gaze out from the land on the great efforts of someone else; not because it's an enjoyable pleasure that somebody is in difficulties, but because it's lovely to realize what troubles you are yourself spared.

Lucretius

On the Nature of Things · 55 BC

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I am condemned to be free.

Jean-Paul Sartre

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I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

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1791

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Capitalism undoubtedly has certain boils and blotches upon it, but has it as many as government? Has it as many as marriage? Has it as many as religion? I doubt it. It is the only basic institution of modern man that shows any genuine health and vigor.

H.L. Mencken

1928

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Other media onSubject·Safety

Book · 1972

Watership Down

Richard Adams

The average man doesn't want to be free. He simply wants to be safe. — H.L. Mencken

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