H. L. Mencken Quotes - Page 23

• No article of faith is proof against the disintegrating effects of increasing information; one might almost describe the acquirement of knowledge as a process of disillusion.

  H. L. Mencken

  Might, Information, Proof

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• All I ask is equal freedom. When it is denied, as it always is, I take it anyhow.

  H. L. Mencken

  Equality, Equal, Denied

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• For it is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together.

  H. L. Mencken

  Trust, Mutual Interest, Together

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• By what route do otherwise sane men come to believe such palpable nonsense? How is it possible for a human brain to be divided into two insulated halves, one functioning normally, naturally
  and even brilliantly, and the other capable only of such ghastly balderdash which issues from the minds of Baptist evangelists?

  H. L. Mencken

  Believe, Men, Issues

  The American Mercury, February 1926.

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• Balloonists have an unsurpassed view of the scenery, but there is always the possibility that it may collide with them.

  H. L. Mencken

  Views, May, Balloons

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• Citizenship in New York is now worth no more than citizenship in Arkansas, for it is open to any applicant from the marshes of Bessarabia, and, still worse, to any applicant from Arkansas.

  H. L. Mencken

  New York, Arkansas, Citizenship

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

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• One of the laudable by-products of the Freudian quackery is the discovery that lying, in most cases, is involuntary and inevitable--that the liar can no more avoid it than he can avoid blinking his eyes when a light flashes or jumping when a bomb goes off behind him.

  H. L. Mencken

  Liars, Lying, Eye

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.325, Vintage

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• Truth would quickly cease to be stranger than fiction, once we got as used to it.

  H. L. Mencken

  Truth, Freedom, Philosophy

  H.L. Mencken “A little book in C major”, Рипол Классик

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

  H. L. Mencken

  Music, Girl, Eye

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• The worst government is the most moral.

  H. L. Mencken

  Government, Moral, Worst

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