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H. L. Mencken Quotes - Page 18

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Women have a hard enough time in this world: telling them the truth would be too cruel.

Women have a hard enough time in this world: telling them the truth would be too cruel.

Women, Enough Time, Would Be

We have had more brilliant Presidents than Cleveland, and one or two who were considerably more profound, but we have never had one, at least since Washington, whose fundamental character was solider and more admirable.

Character, Two, Profound

H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.226, Vintage

All of the great patriots now engaged in edging and squirming their way toward the Presidency of the Republic run true to form. That is to say, they are all extremely wary, and all more or less palpable frauds. What they want, primarily, is the job; the necessary equipment of unescapable issues, immutable principles and soaring ideals can wait until it becomes more certain which way the mob will be whooping.

Running, Jobs, Issues

Haste is of the devil. Slowness is of God.

Devil, Haste, Slowness

This combat between proletariat and plutocracy is, after all, itself a civil war. Two inferiorities struggle for the privilege of polluting the world.

War, Struggle, Two

"The Antichrist". Book by Friedrich Nietzsche, Introduction, 1895.

One may no more live in the world without picking up the moral prejudices of the world than one will be able to go to hell without perspiring.

Prejudice, Literature, World

H. L. Mencken, Marion Elizabeth Rodgers (2010). “H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series”, Hubsta Ltd

What reason is there for believing that a high death rate, in itself, is undesirable? To my knowledge none whatever. The plain fact is that, if it be suitably selective, it is extremely salubrious. Suppose it could be so arranged that it ran to 100% a year among politicians, executive secretaries, drive chairmen, and the homicidally insane? What rational man would object?

Believe, Men, Years

H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.344, Vintage

A woman usually respects her father, but her view of her husband is mingled with contempt, for she is of course privy to the transparent devices by which she snared him.

Husband, Father, Views

H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.537, Vintage

The American people, taking one with another, constitute the most timorous, snivelling, poltroonish, ignominious mob of serfs and goosesteppers ever gathered under one flag in Christendom since the end of the Middle Ages.

People, Age, Flags

H. L. Mencken (2009). “Prejudices: Third Series”, p.10, Cosimo, Inc.

The aim of New Deals is to exterminate the class of creditors and thrust all men into that of debtors. It is like trying to breedcattle with all cows and no bulls.

Men, Class, Trying

The fact that a human brain of high amperage, otherwise highly efficient, may have a hole in it is surely not a secret.

Secret, Brain, May

It is impossible to believe that the same God who permitted His own son to die a bachelor regards celibacy as an actual sin.

God, Believe, Son

H. L. Mencken (2012). “In Defense of Women”, p.47, Courier Corporation

The Christian church, in its attitude toward science, shows the mind of a more or less enlightened man of the Thirteenth Century. It no longer believes that the earth is flat, but it is still convinced that prayer can cure after medicine fails.

Christian, Prayer, Attitude

H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.312, Knopf

When I hear artists or authors making fun of businessmen, I think of a regiment in which the band makes fun of the cooks.

Fun, Artist, Thinking

Sin is a dangerous toy in the hands of the virtuous. It should be left to the congenitally sinful, who know when to play with it and when to let it alone.

Hands, Play, Toys

H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.281, Vintage

I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious.

Believe, Race, Discovery

"What I Believe" by H. L. Mencken, The Forum (American magazine), Volume 84 (p. 139), September 1930.

A woman wishes to mother a man simply because she sees into his helplessness, his need of an amiable environment, his touching self-delusion.

Mother, Men, Self

H. L. Mencken (2015). “In Defense of Women: Human Sexuality”, p.7, 谷月社

One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms. It is not only more effective; it is also vastly more intelligent.

Horse, Laughter, Anger

H. L. Mencken (1924). “Prejudices Fourth Series”

The acting that one sees upon the stage does not show how human beings comport themselves in crises, but how actors think they ought to. It is thus, like poetry and religion, a device for gladdening the heart with what is palpably not true.

Heart, Thinking, Acting

On the one hand, we may tell the truth, regardless of consequences, and on the other hand we may mellow it and sophisticate it to make it humane and tolerable.

Hands, May, Telling The Truth

H. L. Mencken (1924). “Prejudices Fourth Series”

The idea that leisure is of value in itself is only conditionally true. The average man simply spends his leisure as a dog spends it. His recreations are all puerile, and the time supposed to benefit him really only stupefies him.

Dog, Men, Average

H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.86, Knopf

The average woman must inevitably view her actual husband with a certain disdain; he is anything but her ideal. In consequence, she cannot help feeling that her children are cruelly handicapped by the fact that he is their father.

Husband, Children, Father

H. L. Mencken (2015). “In Defense of Women: Human Sexuality”, p.42, 谷月社

Men have a much better time of it than women. For one thing, they marry later; for another thing, they die earlier.

Funny, Relationship, Marriage

Chrestomathy (1949) ch. 30

Wherever I sit is the head of the table.

Work, Tables

The harsh, useful things of the world, from pulling teeth to digging potatoes, are best done by men who are as starkly sober as so many convicts in the death-house, but the lovely and useless things, the charming and exhilarating things, are best done by men with, as the phrase is, a few sheets in the wind.

Drinking, Men, Wind

H. L. MENCKEN (1924). “PREJUDICES FOURTH SERIES”

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