H. L. Mencken Quotes - Page 10

• I have long been convinced that the idea of liberty is abhorrent to most human beings. What they want is security, not freedom. Thus it seldom causes any public indignation when an enterprising tyrant claps down on one of his enemies. To most men it seems a natural proceeding.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Tyrants, Ideas

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

  H. L. Mencken

  Love, Opinion, Impossible

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• Why assume so glibly that the God who presumably created the universe is still running it? It is certainly conceivable that He may have finished it and then turned it over to lesser gods to operate.

  H. L. Mencken

  God, Running, Religious

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.298, Knopf

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• The essence of science is that it is always willing to abandon a given idea, however fundamental it may seem to be, for a better one; the essence of theology is that it holds its truths to be eternal and immutable. To be sure, theology is always yielding a little to the progress of knowledge, and only a Holy Roller in the mountains of Tennessee would dare to preach today what the popes preached in the Thirteenth Century, but this yielding is always done grudgingly, and thus lingers a good while behind the event.

  H. L. Mencken

  Science, Essence, Ideas

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.249, Knopf

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• 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.

  H. L. Mencken

  Government, Essence, Humanity

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• The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on 'I am not too sure'.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Culture, Fields

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.416, Knopf

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• A man full of faith is simply one who has lost the capacity for clear and realistic thought.

  H. L. Mencken

  Faith, Atheist, Men

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.11, Vintage

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• Politics, as hopeful men practise it in the world, consists mainly of the delusion that a change in form is a change in substance.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Hopeful, Substance

  H.L. MENCKEN (1958). “PREJUDICES A SELECTION”

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• Adultery is the application of democracy to love.

  H. L. Mencken

  Love, Marriage, Infidelity

  "A Mencken Chrestomathy". Book by H. L. Mencken, 1949.

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• The liberation of the human mind has never been furthered by dunderheads.

  H. L. Mencken

  Mind, Liberation, Humans

  "Clinical Notes". The American Mercury (January 1924), p. 75; later quoted in H. L. Mencken "Prejudices: Fourth Series", 1924.

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• When a woman says she won't, it's a good sign that she will. And when she says she will, it is an even better sign.

  H. L. Mencken

  Sex, Women

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• Archbishop - A Christian ecclesiastic of a rank superior to that attained by Christ.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Christian, Humorous

  A Little Book in C Major ch. 4 (1916)

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• The truth, indeed, is something that mankind, for some mysterious reason, instinctively dislikes. Every man who tries to tell it is unpopular, and even when, by the sheer strength of his case, he prevails, he is put down as a scoundrel.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Trying, Mysterious

  Chicago Tribune, May 23, 1926.

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• The believing mind reaches its perihelion in the so-called Liberals. They believe in each and every quack who sets up his booth inthe fairgrounds, including the Communists. The Communists have some talents too, but they always fall short of believing in the Liberals.

  H. L. Mencken

  Believe, Fall, Mind

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• 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

  H. L. Mencken

  Simple, Literary Theory, Ideas

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

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• Governments, whatever their pretensions otherwise, try to preserve themselves by holding the individual down ... Government itself, indeed, may be reasonably defined as a conspiracy against him. Its one permanent aim, whatever its form, is to hobble him sufficiently to maintain itself.

  H. L. Mencken

  Government, Trying, May

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• No matter how happily a woman may be married, it always pleases her to discover that there is a nice man who wishes that she were not.

  H. L. Mencken

  Marriage, Flirty, Nice

  "A Mencken Chrestomathy". Book by H. L. Mencken , as quoted in "The New Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations" by Robert Andrews (2003), 1949.

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• It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself up out of the dark abyss of pish and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash.

  H. L. Mencken

  Dog, Humor, Dark

  "On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe". Book by H. L. Mencken, 1956.

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• The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Laughter, Humorous

  A Little Book in C Major ch. 4 (1916)

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• 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.

  H. L. Mencken

  Law, Voting, Facts

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

  H. L. Mencken

  Wise, Work, Advice

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

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• The function of a newspaper in a democracy is to stand as a sort of chronic opposition to the reigning quacks. The minute it begins to out-whoop them it forfeits its character and becomes ridiculous.

  H. L. Mencken

  Character, Democracy, Ridiculous

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

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• 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.

  H. L. Mencken

  Art, Men, Agony

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

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• What ails the truth is that it is mainly uncomfortable, and often dull. The human mind seeks something more amusing, and more caressing.

  H. L. Mencken

  Mind, Dull, Truth Is

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• The American people, I am convinced, really detest free speech. At the slightest alarm they are ready and eager to put it down.

  H. L. Mencken

  People, Alarms, Speech

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Diary of H. L. Mencken”, p.635, Vintage

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