H. L. Mencken Quotes - Page 11

• Of all the human qualities, the one I admire the most is competence. A tailor who is really able to cut and fit a coat seems to me an admirable man, and by the same token a university professor who knows little or nothing of the thing he presumes to teach seems to me to be a fraud and a rascal.

  H. L. Mencken

  Cutting, Men, University Professors

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.167, Knopf

  25 Copy quote

• It is not materialism that is the chief curse of the world, as pastors teach, but idealism. Men get into trouble by taking their visions and hallucinations too seriously.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Vision, World

  33 Copy quote

• 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.

  H. L. Mencken

  People, Political, Democracy

  7 Copy quote

• The only really respectable Protestants are the fundamentalists. Unfortunately, they are also palpable idiots.

  H. L. Mencken

  Superstitions, Belief, Idiot

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.121, Knopf

  10 Copy quote

• The typical American of today has lost all the love of liberty, that his forefathers had, and all their disgust of emotion, and pride in self- reliance. He is led no longer by Davy Crocketts; he is led by cheer leaders, press agents, word mongers, uplifters.

  H. L. Mencken

  Love, Cheer, Pride

  4 Copy quote

• The only cure for contempt is counter-contempt.

  H. L. Mencken

  Cures, Contempt

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.100, Knopf

  10 Copy quote

• The most curious social convention of the great age in which we live is the one to the effect that religious opinions should be respected.

  H. L. Mencken

  Religious, Religion, Atheism

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.80, Vintage

  15 Copy quote

• To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true!

  H. L. Mencken

  Wisdom, Men, Ideas

  11 Copy quote

• One of the main purposes of laws in a democratic society is to put burdens upon intelligence and reduce it to impotence. Ostensibly, their aim is to penalize anti-social acts; actually their aim is to penalize heretical opinions. At least ninety-five Americans out of every 100 believe that this process is honest and even laudable; it is practically impossible to convince them that there is anything evil in it. In other words, they cannot grasp the concept of liberty.

  H. L. Mencken

  Business, Believe, Law

  "Liberty and Democracy". Baltimore Evening Sun (April 13, 1925) as quoted in "A Second Mencken Chrestomathy: A New Selection from the Writings of America's Legendary Editor, Critic, and Wit" edited by Terry Teachout (p. 35), 1994.

  12 Copy quote

• [Science] must be amoral by its very nature: The minute it begins separating facts into the two categories of good ones and bad ones it ceases to be science and becomes a mere nuisance, like theology.

  H. L. Mencken

  Two, Nuisance, Facts

  6 Copy quote

• 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.

  H. L. Mencken

  Character, Two, Profound

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

  4 Copy quote

• Human life is basically a comedy. Even its tragedies often seem comic to the spectator, and not infrequently they actually have comic touches to the victim. Happiness probably consists largely in the capacity to detect and relish them. A man who can laugh, if only at himself, is never really miserable.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Laughing, Tragedy

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.21, Knopf

  10 Copy quote

• The storm center of lawlessness in every American State is the State Capitol. It is there that the worst crimes are committed; it is there that lawbreaking attains to the estate and dignity of a learned profession; it is there that contempt for the laws is engendered, fostered, and spread broadcast.

  H. L. Mencken

  Government, Law, Liberty

  16 Copy quote

• The only way to reconcile science and religion is to set up something which is not science and something that is not religion.

  H. L. Mencken

  Science, Way, Science And Religion

  9 Copy quote

• Nine out of ten Americans are actually monarchists at bottom. The fact is proved by their high suseptibility to political claims by president's sons and other relatives, usually nonentities.

  H. L. Mencken

  Son, Government, Political

  17 Copy quote

• Religion deserves no more respect than a pile of garbage.

  H. L. Mencken

  Atheist, Garbage, Deserve

  15 Copy quote

• All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Progress, Society

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

  64 Copy quote

• Dachshund: A half-a-dog high and a dog-and-a-half long.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Dog, Long

  40 Copy quote

• 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.

  H. L. Mencken

  Strong, Government, Dying

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

  10 Copy quote

• Human progress is furthered, not by conformity, but by aberration.

  H. L. Mencken

  Wisdom, Progress, Aberration

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Second Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.470, Vintage

  16 Copy quote

• Say what you will about the ten commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Laughter, Freedom

  17 Copy quote

• In the United States, doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favorite device of persons with something to sell.

  H. L. Mencken

  Cynical, Patriotism, United States

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.359, Vintage

  19 Copy quote

• A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, Animal, Democracy

  20 Copy quote

• The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.

  H. L. Mencken

  Government, Usa, Literature

  "The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations". Book edited by Antony Jay, 1996.

  23 Copy quote

• The public, with its mob yearning to be instructed, edified and pulled by the nose, demands certainties; it must be told definitely and a bit raucously that this is true and that is false. But there are no certainties.

  H. L. Mencken

  Society, Noses, Demand

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

  17 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

George Jean Nathan

Friedrich Nietzsche

Mark Twain

Clarence Darrow

Sinclair Lewis

Ambrose Bierce

John T. Scopes

Will Rogers