H. L. Mencken Quotes - Page 37

• No man ever quite believes in any other man.

  H. L. Mencken

  Believe, Men, Quitting

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.10, Vintage

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• Thanksgiving Day is a day devoted by persons with inflammatory rheumatism to thanking a loving Father that it is not hydrophobia.

  H. L. Mencken

  Father, Dignity, Thanksgiving Day

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• At the end of one millennium and nine centuries of Christianity, it remains an unshakable assumption of the law in all Christian countries and of the moral judgement of Christians everywhere that if a man and a woman, entering a room together, close the door behind them, the man will come out sadder and the woman wiser.

  H. L. Mencken

  Christian, Country, Men

  H. L. Mencken (1924). “Prejudices Fourth Series”

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• It is surely no mere coincidence that the land of the emancipated and enthroned woman is also the land of canned soup, of canned pork and beans, of whole meals in cans, and of everything else ready made.

  H. L. Mencken

  Food, Land, Pork

  H. L. Mencken (2015). “In Defense of Women: Human Sexuality”, p.11, 谷月社

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• A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin or when he sees silver he looks for the cloud it lines. A wise happy person does the exact opposite.

  H. L. Mencken

  Wise, Gratitude, Flower

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• The critic, to interpret his artist, even to understand his artist, must be able to get into the mind of his artist; he must feel and comprehend the vast pressure of the creative passion.

  H. L. Mencken

  Passion, Artist, Creative

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

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• If there were only three women left in the world, two of them would immediately convene a court-martial to try the other one.

  H. L. Mencken

  Two, Trying, Three

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

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• A poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child.

  H. L. Mencken

  Children, Years, Poet

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.19, Knopf

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• The aim of poetry, it appears, is to fill the mind with lofty thoughts--not to give it joy, but to give it a grand and somewhat gaudy sense of virtue. The essay is a weapon against the degenerate tendencies of the age. The novel, properly conceived, is a means of uplifting the spirit; its aim is to inspire, not merely to satisfy the low curiosity of man in man.

  H. L. Mencken

  Uplifting, Mean, Men

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

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• Love begins like a triolet and ends like a college yell.

  H. L. Mencken

  Love, College, Love Is

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

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• The seasick passenger on an ocean liner detests the good sailor who stalks past him 265 times a day grandly smoking a large, greasy cigar. In precisely the same way the democrat hates the man who is having a better time in the world. This is the origin of democracy. It is also the origin of Puritanism.

  H. L. Mencken

  Hate, Ocean, Past

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• I detest converts almost as much as I do missionaries.

  H. L. Mencken

  Agnostic, Detest

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• In the United States...politics is purged of all menace, all sinister quality, all genuine significance, and stuffed with such gorgeous humors, such inordinate farce that one comes to the end of a campaign with one's ribs loose, and ready for King Lear, or a hanging, or a course of medical journals.

  H. L. Mencken

  Kings, Political, Quality

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• Time is a great legalizer, even in the field of morals

  H. L. Mencken

  Time, Justice, Fields

  A Book of Prefaces ch. 4 (1917)

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• Lying is not only excusable; it is not only innocent; it is, above all, necessary and unavoidable. Without the ameliorations that it offers, life would become a mere syllogism and hence too metallic to be borne.

  H. L. Mencken

  Life, Success, Lying

  H. L. Mencken (1924). “Prejudices Fourth Series”

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• What fetched me instantly (and thousands of other newcomers with me) was the subtle but unmistakable sense of escape from the United States.

  H. L. Mencken

  San Francisco, United States, Subtle

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• It is Hell, of course, that makes priests powerful, not Heaven, for after thousands of years of so-called civilization fear remains the one common denominator of mankind

  H. L. Mencken

  Powerful, Inspiration, Years

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• The military caste did not originate as a party of patriots, but as a party of bandits

  H. L. Mencken

  Military, War, Party

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.314, Knopf

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• He slept more than any other president, whether by day or by night. Nero fiddled, but Coolidge only snored.

  H. L. Mencken

  Night, Political, President

  'American Mercury' April 1933

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• Living with a dog is easy- like living with an idealist.

  H. L. Mencken

  Dog, Easy, Canine

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• He sailed through American history like a steel ship loaded with monoliths of granite.

  H. L. Mencken

  Political, Steel, Politics

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.227, Vintage

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• Happiness, like health, is probably also only a passing accident. For a moment or two the organism is irritated so little that it is not conscious of it; for the duration of that moment it is happy. Thus a hog is always happier than a man, and a bacillus is happier than a hog

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Two, Duration

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.375, Vintage

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• Some boys go to college and eventually succeed in getting out. Others go to college and never succeed in getting out. The latter are called professors.

  H. L. Mencken

  Boys, College, Succeed

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• If I had my way, any man guilty of golf would be barred from any public office in the United States and the families of the breed would be shipped off to the white slave corrals of Argentina.

  H. L. Mencken

  Golf, Men, White

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• The truth is . . . that the great artists of the world are never puritans, and seldom ever ordinarily respectable. No virtuous man - that is, virtuous in the YMCA sense - has ever painted a picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing, or a book worth reading, and it is highly improbable that the thing has ever been done by a virtuous woman.

  H. L. Mencken

  Art, Book, Reading

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

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