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H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
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Showing quotations 1 to 30 of 59 total

A celebrity is one who is known to many persons he is glad he doesn't know.: H. L. Mencken
- More quotations on: [Celebrities]
A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.: H. L. Mencken
- More quotations on: [Cynicism]
A home is not a mere transient shelter: its essence lies in the personalities of the people who live in it.: H. L. Mencken
A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.: H. L. Mencken
- More quotations on: [Laws]
A poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child.: H. L. Mencken
- More quotations on: [Poetry]
All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.: H. L. Mencken
- More quotations on: [Lies]
All successful newspapers are ceaselessly querulous and bellicose. They never defend anyone or anything if they can help it; if the job is forced on them, they tackle it by denouncing someone or something else.: H. L. Mencken
- More quotations on: [Journalism]
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.: H. L. Mencken
An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.: H. L. Mencken
- More quotations on: [Idealism]
Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.: H. L. Mencken
Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.: H. L. Mencken
Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.: H. L. Mencken
Criticism is prejudice made plausible.: H. L. Mencken
- More quotations on: [Criticism] [Prejudice]
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.: H. L. Mencken
- More quotations on: [Democracy]
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.: H. L. Mencken
- More quotations on: [Government]
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.: H. L. Mencken
Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.: H. L. Mencken
For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing.: H. L. Mencken
- More quotations on: [Religion]
For it is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together. Our friends seldom profit us but they make us feel safe... Marriage is a scheme to accomplish exactly that same end.: H. L. Mencken
- More quotations on: [Trust]
Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.: H. L. Mencken
I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.: H. L. Mencken
- More quotations on: [Government]
I never lecture, not because I am shy or a bad speaker, but simply because I detest the sort of people who go to lectures and don't want to meet them.: H. L. Mencken
In the United States, doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favorite device of persons with something to sell.: H. L. Mencken
Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.: H. L. Mencken
It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.: H. L. Mencken
It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.: H. L. Mencken
It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf.: H. L. Mencken
- More quotations on: [Golf]
It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.: H. L. Mencken
It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics or chemistry.: H. L. Mencken
It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull.: H. L. Mencken

Showing quotations 1 to 30 of 59 total

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