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H. L. Mencken Quotes - Page 9

All Quotes Achievement Adultery Adventure Age Alcohol Arguing Art Atheism Atheist Beer Belief Business Change Character Children Choices College Comedy Common Sense Communism Conscience Conspiracy Cooking Country Courage Criticism Critics Culture Cynicism Death Democracy Determination Devil Difficulty Dignity Doubt Drinking Dying Earth Education Effort Ethics Evil Exercise Faith Fear Feelings Fighting Food Free Speech Freedom Funny Genius Giving God Golf Happiness Hate Heart Heaven Hell History Home Honesty Honor House Humanity Husband Ignorance Imagination Inspirational Intelligence Intuition Journalism Joy Judging Justice Kissing Knowledge Language Laughter Learning Liberty Life Literature Logic Love Lying Marriage Military Money Moon Morality Music Nature Office Originality Passion Past Patriotism Peace Personality Philosophy Politics Pot Poverty Prejudice Progress Propaganda Quality Quitting Reading Religion Respect Revolution Running Safety School Science Science And Religion Skins Slavery Society Son Sports Struggle Stupidity Style Success Suffering Sunday Sympathy Teaching Temptation Time Today Tragedy Trust Truth Virtue Voting Waiting War Water Weakness Wife Wisdom Work Writing Youth

We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine.

We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine.

Inspirational, Drinking, Knowledge

"A Mencken chrestomathy". Book by Henry Louis Mencken, 1949.

As for me, my literary theory, like my politics, is based chiefly upon one main idea, to wit, the idea of freedom. I am, in brief, a libertarian of the most extreme variety, and know of no human right that is one-tenth as valuable as the simple right to utter what seems (at the moment) to be the truth

Simple, Literary Theory, Ideas

H. L. Mencken (2000). “H.L. Mencken's Smart Set Criticism”, p.24, Regnery Publishing

Government today is growing too strong to be safe. There are no longer any citizens in the world there are only subjects. They work day in and day out for their masters they are bound to die for their masters at call. Out of this working and dying they tend to get less and less.

Strong, Government, Dying

H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.148, Vintage

Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone might be looking.

Funny, Life, Freedom

I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave.

Freedom, Believe, Men

"Why Liberty?". Chicago Tribune, January 30, 1927.

Man is a natural polygamist: he always has one woman leading him by the nose, and another hanging on to his coattails.

Men, Noses, Hanging On

If the American people really tire of democracy and want to make a trial of Fascism, I shall be the last person to object. But if that is their mood, then they had better proceed toward their aim by changing the Constitution and not by forgetting it.

People, Political, Democracy

It is the invariable habit of bureaucracies, at all times and everywhere, to assume...that every citizen is a criminal. Their one apparent purpose, pursued with a relentless and furious diligence, is to convert the assumption into a fact. They hunt endlessly for proofs, and, when proofs are lacking, for mere suspicions. The moment they become aware of a definite citizen, John Doe, seeking what is his right under the law, they begin searching feverishly for an excuse for withholding it from him.

Law, Voting, Facts

Government, in its very essence, is opposed to all increase in knowledge. Its tendency is always towards permanence and against change...[T]he progress of humanity, far from being the result of government, has been made entirely without its aid and in the face if its constant and bitter opposition.

Government, Essence, Humanity

Let no one mistake it for comedy, farcical though it may be in all its details. It serves notice on the country that Neanderthal man is organizing in these forlorn backwaters of the land, led by a fanatic, rid of sense and devoid of conscience.

Country, Mistake, Science

Love is an emotion that is based on an opinion of women that is impossible for those who have had any experience with them.

Love, Opinion, Impossible

Economic independence is the foundation of the only sort of freedom worth a damn

Independence, Foundation, Economic

When a private citizen is robbed, a worthy man is deprived of the fruits of his industry and thrift; when the government is robbed, the worst that happens is that certain rogues and loafers have less money to play with than they had before.

Men, Play, Citizens

H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.147, Vintage

The truth is that Christian theology, like every other theology, is not only opposed to the scientific spirit; it is also opposed to all other attempts at rational thinking.

Christian, Thinking, Spirit

Evil is that which one believes of others.

Believe, Evil

H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.617, Vintage

All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.

Funny, Men, Differences

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.

Men, Doubt, Vigor

American Mercury, Aug. 1928

The so-called Philosophy of India is even more blowsy and senseless than the metaphysics of the West. It is at war with everything we know of the workings of the human mind, and with every sound idea formulated by mankind. If it prevailed in the whole modern world we'd still be in the Thirteenth Century; nay, we'd be back among the Egyptians of the pyramid age. Its only coherent contribution to Western thought has been theosophy-and theosophy is as idiotic as Christian Science. It has absolutely nothing to offer a civilized white man.

Christian, Philosophy, War

Skin diseases are something doctors like, the patient neither dies nor gets well.

Get Well, Doctors, Skins

Never let your inferiors do you a favor - it will be extremely costly.

Wise, Work, Advice

H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.616, Vintage

A bad artist almost always tries to conceal his incompetence by whooping up a new formula.

Artist, Trying, Incompetence

H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.564, Vintage

All government, of course, is against liberty.

Government, Liberty, Courses

Correct spelling, indeed, is one of the arts that are far more esteemed by schoolma’ams than by practical men, neck-deep in the heat and agony of the world.

Art, Men, Agony

H.L. Mencken (2012). “American Language Supplement 2”, p.563, Knopf

The best teacher of children, in brief, is one who is essentially childlike.

Teacher, Children, Best Teacher

H. L. Mencken (2009). “Prejudices: Third Series”, p.248, Cosimo, Inc.

Every step in human progress, from the first feeble stirrings in the abyss of time, has been opposed by the great majority of men. Every valuable thing that has been added to the store of man's possessions has been derided by them when it was new, and destroyed by them when they had the power. They have fought every new truth ever heard of, and they have killed every truth-seeker who got into their hands.

Men, Hands, Progress

"Homo Neanderthalensis Baltimore Sun". "The Impossible Mencken" by H. L. Mencken, June 29, 1925.

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