H. L. Mencken Quotes - Page 23

• The ideal state for a philosopher, indeed, is celibacy tempered by polygamy.

  H. L. Mencken

  Philosopher, Celibacy, States

  H. L. Mencken (2003). “Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche”, p.35, See Sharp Press

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• Jury - A group of 12 people, who, having lied to the judge about their health, hearing, and business engagements, have failed to fool him.

  H. L. Mencken

  People, Judging, Groups

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• The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in which it is overestimated.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Inspiring, Appreciation

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

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• A large part of altruism, even when it is perfectly honest, is grounded upon the fact that it is uncomfortable to have unhappy people about one.

  H. L. Mencken

  People, Unhappy, Charity

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.17, Vintage

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• Hanging one scoundrel, it appears, does not deter the next. Well, what of it? The first one is at least disposed of.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, Democracy, Doe

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• The more a man dreams, the less he believes.

  H. L. Mencken

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  H.L. Mencken (1920). “Prejudices Second Series”

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• The martini: the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet.

  H. L. Mencken

  Drinking, Perfect, Invention

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• Poetry has done enough when it charms, but prose must also convince.

  H. L. Mencken

  Lucky Charms, Done, Literature

  H. L. Mencken (2009). “Prejudices: Third Series”, p.166, Cosimo, Inc.

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• I never agree with Communists or any other kind of kept men.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Kind, Communism

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• Metaphysics is almost always an attempt to prove the incredible by an appeal to the unintelligible.

  H. L. Mencken

  Cynical, Agnostic, Incredibles

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• The university president who cashiered every professor unwilling to support Woodrow Wilson for the first vacancy in the
  Trinity. . . .

  H. L. Mencken

  Support, President, Vacancy

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• To denounce moralizing out of hand is to pronounce a moral judgment.

  H. L. Mencken

  Hands, Morality, Judgment

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

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• Voting is simply a way of determining which side is the stronger without putting it to the test of fighting.

  H. L. Mencken

  Fighting, Voting, Stronger

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

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• The fact is that the average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Average, Justice

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Second Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.113, Vintage

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• We must be willing to pay a price for freedom.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, Pay, Payment

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

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• The way to hold a husband is to keep him a little jealous; the way to lose him is to keep him a little more jealous.

  H. L. Mencken

  Marriage, Jealousy, Husband

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• Life without sex might be safer but it would be unbearably dull. It is the sex instinct which makes women seem beautiful, which they are once in a blue moon, and men seem wise and brave, which they never are at all. Throttle it, denaturalize it, take it away, and human existence would be reduced to the prosaic, laborious, boresome, imbecile level of life in an anthill.

  H. L. Mencken

  Beautiful, Wise, Sex

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• Debussy--A pretty girl with one blue eye and one brown one.

  H. L. Mencken

  Music, Girl, Eye

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• I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind.

  H. L. Mencken

  Religious, Believe, Religion

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

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• All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: it's one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him... One of its primary functions is to regiment men by force, to make them as much alike as possible and as dependent upon one another as possible, to search out and combat originality among them.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Essence, Originality

  "Prejudices: Third Series (Le Contrat Social)". Book by H. L. Mencken, 1922.

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• The worst government is the most moral.

  H. L. Mencken

  Government, Moral, Worst

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• No matter how much a woman loved a man, it would still give her a glow to see him commit suicide for her.

  H. L. Mencken

  Love, Suicide, Dream

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• The chief knowledge that's man on from reading books is the knowledge that very few of them are worth reading.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Book, Reading

  "A little book in C major".

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• Wife: one who is sorry she did it, but would undoubtedly do it again.

  H. L. Mencken

  Sorry, Wife

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• Most people are unable to write because they are unable to think, and they are unable to think because they congenitally lack the equipment to do so, just as they congenitally lack the equipment to fly over the moon.

  H. L. Mencken

  Writing, Moon, Thinking

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