H. L. Mencken Quotes - Page 27

• When we appropriate money from the public funds to pay for vaccinating a horde of negroes, we do not do it because we have any sympathy for them or because we crave their blessings, but simply because we don't want them to be falling ill of smallpox

  H. L. Mencken

  Sympathy, Fall, Blessing

  H. L. Mencken (2003). “Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche”, p.165, See Sharp Press

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• All [zoos] actually offer to the public in return for the taxes spent upon them is a form of idle and witless amusement, compared to which a visit to a penitentiary, or even to a State legislature in session, is informing, stimulating and ennobling.

  H. L. Mencken

  Zoos, Freedom, Political

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.365, Vintage

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• A mood of constructive criticism being upon me, I propose forthwith that the method of choosing legislators now prevailing in the United States be abandoned and that the method used in choosing juries be substituted. That is to say, I propose that the men who make our laws be chosen by chance and against will of all the rest of us, as now.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Law, Criticism

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• There are no institutions in America: there are only fashions.

  H. L. Mencken

  Fashion, America, Institutions

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.622, Vintage

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• [A formula for answering controversial letters -- without even reading the letters:] Dear Sir (or Madame): You may be right.

  H. L. Mencken

  Reading, Letters, May

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• It is almost as safe to assume that an artist of any dignity is against his country, i.e., against the environment in which God hath placed him, as it is to assume that his country is against the artist.

  H. L. Mencken

  Country, Art, Society

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.562, Vintage

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• In Baltimore, soft crabs are always fried (or broiled) in the altogether, with maybe a small jock-strap of bacon added.

  H. L. Mencken

  Food, Cooking, Jocks

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• The most common of all follies is to believe in the palpably untrue.

  H. L. Mencken

  Believe, Common, Folly

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• To be in love is merely to be in a state of perceptual anesthesia - to mistake an ordinary young woman for a goddess.

  H. L. Mencken

  Love, Funny, Mistake

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.57, Vintage

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• Happiness is the china shop; love is the bull.

  H. L. Mencken

  Love, Happiness, Anniversary

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

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• The worshiper is the father of the gods.

  H. L. Mencken

  Father, Religion, Dignity

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.178, Vintage

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• If I ever mary, it will be on a suddn impulse - as aman shoots himself

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Marriage, Suicidal

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• It is only doubt that creates.

  H. L. Mencken

  Doubt

  H. L. Mencken (2003). “The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche”, p.94, See Sharp Press

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• The first kiss is stolen by the man; the last is begged by the woman.

  H. L. Mencken

  Kissing, Men, First Kiss

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• In the long run all battles are lost, and so are all wars.

  H. L. Mencken

  Running, War, Long

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• Nothing can come out of an artist that is not in the man.

  H. L. Mencken

  Writing, Artist, Men

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.525, Vintage

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• No form of liberty is worth a darn [sic] which doesn't give us the right to do wrong now and then.

  H. L. Mencken

  Giving, Liberty, Now And Then

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• Confidence: The feeling that makes one believe a man, even when one knows that one would lie in his place

  H. L. Mencken

  Confidence, Lying, Believe

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• Man makes love by braggadocio, and woman makes love by listening.

  H. L. Mencken

  Women, Men, Making Love

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• Suicide is a belated acquiescence in the opinion of one's wife's relatives.

  H. L. Mencken

  Suicide, Wife, Acquiescence

  A Little Book in C Major ch. 5 (1916)

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• The Americans are the illegitimate children of the English.

  H. L. Mencken

  Children, America, Illegitimate Child

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• Puccini - silver macaroni, exquisitely tangled.

  H. L. Mencken

  Tangled, Silver, Composer

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• In human history a moral victory is always a disaster, for it debauches and degrades both the victor and the vanquished.

  H. L. Mencken

  Victory, Moral, Disaster

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.199, Vintage

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• High-toned humanitarians constantly overestimate the sufferings of those they sympathize with.

  H. L. Mencken

  Suffering, Humanitarianism, Overestimate

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• When a husband's story is believed, he begins to suspect his wife.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Husband, Wife

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.620, Vintage

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