H. L. Mencken Quotes about Truth

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The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.

The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.

H. L. Mencken

Success, Truth, Liars

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

The truth that survives is simply the lie that is pleasantest to believe.

H. L. Mencken

Truth, Lying, Believe

I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.

H. L. Mencken

Inspirational, Nature, Truth

"What I Believe". The Forum Magazine, Issue 84 (p. 139), September 1930.

The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth - that error and truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it has been cured of one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one.

H. L. Mencken

Truth, Errors, Discovery

"Prejudices: Third Series". Book by H. L. Mencken, 1922.

No one ever heard of the truth being enforced by law. When the secular is called in to sustain an idea, whether new or old, it is always a bad idea, and not infrequently it is downright idiotic.

H. L. Mencken

Truth, Law, Ideas

H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.382, Knopf

The man who boasts that he habitually tells the truth is simply a man with no respect for it. It is not a thing to be thrown about loosely, like small change; it is something to be cherished and hoarded and disbursed only when absolutely necessary. The smallest atom of truth represents some man's bitter toil and agony; for every ponderable chunk of it there is a brave truth-seeker's grave upon some lonely ash-dump and a soul roasting in Hell.

H. L. Mencken

Lonely, Truth, Lying

1922 Prejudices, 3rd series, ch.14.

The psychologists and the metaphysicians wrangle endlessly over the nature of the thinking process in man, but no matter how violently they differ otherwise they all agree that it has little to do with logic and is not much conditioned by overt facts.

H. L. Mencken

Truth, Learning, Knowledge

H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.311, Knopf

The smallest atom of truth represents some man's bitter toil and agony; for every ponderable chunk of it there is a brave truth-seeker's grave upon some lonely ash-dump and a soul roasting in hell.

H. L. Mencken

Lonely, Truth, Honesty

H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.15, Vintage