One of the most mawkish of human delusions is the notion that friendship should be eternal, or, at all events, life-long, and that any act which puts a term to it is somehow discreditable.
H. L. Mencken
Related Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. -H. L. Mencken. H. L. MENCKEN As the arteries grow hard, the heart grows soft. -H. L. Mencken. H. L. MENCKEN As the arteries grow hard, the heart grows soft. thanks to Alan Bennett -H. L. Mencken. H. L. MENCKEN Life is weird and wonderful like that, is it not. SONYA.E.WILLIAMS Both [P. T.] Barnum and H. L. Mencken are said to have made the depressing observation that no one e... CARL SAGAN Raising human offspring is an endeavor nothing less than a continued labor of patience, hard work, o... CONNIE KERBS I believe that there is a Matrix and... to be more accurate I am in the Pornography Matrix. DEYTH BANGER Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you... C. JOYBELL C. One of the traps or the pitfalls of writing a trilogy - or a triptych, or whatever term you want to ... JUSTIN CRONIN Being present is being connected to All Things. S. KELLEY HARRELL, M. DIV. Any friend that asks a great deal out of any other friend is not a friend at all, friendship should ... GARY F EVANS... At a time when our party should be providing forward-thinking leadership on energy, it is truly unfo... DAVID JENKINS Life is not a game. Still, in this life, we choose the games we live to play. J.R. RIM One of the biggest events that happens in life is death,for it shows us the way to eternal rest. DAVID ATTA (A.K.A DAVIED ATTLARS & MR DAIN) The two men had a conversation. Brief, cryptic, to the point. As though they had exchanged numbers a... ARUNDHATI ROY One of the most interesting and harmful delusions to which men and nations can be subjected is that ... BERTRAND RUSSELL All I ever did to that apartment was hang fifty yards of yellow theatrical silk across the bedroom w... JOAN DIDION We can never make proper goodbyes. It was your last ride in a Checker cab and you had no warning. It... COLSON WHITEHEAD Be kind. We never know what people are going through. Give grace and mercy because one day your circ... GERMANY KENT The Biggest Threat to our Democracy, Freedoms and Future is Leadership that fosters and Appeases the... MICHAEL HARRIS When living is too sweet and swanky, it may be very hard to appreciate the simplest things in life. ... ERIK PEVERNAGIE I'm fucking the grave, I thought, I'm bringing the dead back to life... CHARLES BUKOWSKI A lot of people like the idea of eternal love and eternal romance. The notion of love that is more p... JAMES PATTERSON If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass gr... GEORGE ELIOT If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass gr... GEORGE ELIOT What is it that makes you so angry, bothers you so deeply, that you're compelled to act? CRAIG GROESCHEL We all are wearing many hundred glasses of different colors. Therefore, everyone sees the world in d... MUDITHA CHAMPIKA The notion that human life is sacred just because it is human life is medieval. PETER SINGER The belief that one's own view of reality is the only reality is the most dangerous of all delus... PAUL WATZLAWICK Morality is the theory that every h uman act must be either right or wrong, and that 99 % of them a... H. L. MENCKEN The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act... H. L. MENCKEN If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass gr... GEORGE ELIOT Love has no middle term; either it destroys, or it saves. All human destiny is this dilemma. This di... VICTOR HUGO 15. “The love of money is the root of all evil” (1Timothy 6:10, KJV). That’s why Jesus issues ... JAMES C. DOBSON To be entirely free, and at the same time, entirely dominated by law, is the eternal paradox of huma... OSCAR WILDE I believe that if we really want human brotherhood to spread and increase until it makes life... ADLAI STEVENSON 2. Overcommitment and time pressure are the greatest destroyers of marriages. It takes time to devel... JAMES C. DOBSON Each man lives in his own universe and when he dies the world is over BANGAMBIKI HABYARIMANA It is a lie. ARTHUR MILLER The love of husband and wife, which is creative of new human life, is a marvellously personal sharin... VINCENT NICHOLS It is a microcosm of events generally hitting the market, ... and it reinforces the notion that ther... ANTHONY CRESCENZI There may be an interaction between the long-term thing and more recent (events). A lot of their mes... BRUCE HERBOLD Time is so important.'so spend time doing something that you love.' make the most of it and Let the ... NAPZ CHERUB PELLAZO Holiness is the very principle of eternal life, the very beginning of eternal life in the heart, and... JEREMIAH BURROUGHS The overall purpose of human communication is - or should be - reconciliation. It should ultimately ... M. SCOTT PECK I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES It has been spelt out to Ruud that he is part of our plans in the short, medium and long term. He is... CARLOS QUEIROZ Another key element of human ecology is the inviolability of human life, especially at its beginning... POPE JOHN PAUL II To be human, that's what most of us long for. It is the human which has become myth to us. ANNE RICE We all are wearing many hundred glasses of different colors. So, everyone see the world in different... MUDITHA CHAMPIKA Due to the monstrous activity of a handful of extremists, the majority of the human society has been... ABHIJIT NASKAR Food Allergies Are Not Due to Food, Rather Are Due to the Constant Contamination of That Food That Y... THEHEALTHFOODGURU The capacity for people to kid themselves is huge. Living on illusions or delusions, and the re-esta... JAMES HILLMAN One should act in consonance with the way of heaven and earth, which is enduring and eternal. The su... I CHING To stand on the brink of what is coming, feeling eager, optimistic anticipation—with no feeli... ASK AND IT IS GIVEN There never comes a point where a theory can be said to be true. The most that one can claim for any... SIR ALFRED JULES AYER One of the lessons from Sept. 11 is that America requires a long-term presence in those parts of the... RUDY GIULIANI The gratitude of the nation to the Sovereign Arbiter of All Human Events should be commensurate with... JAMES POLK All human endeavor, all human civilization, is the act of solving collective action problems. Should... NICK HANAUER When I die it will be game over,... but I know one life is short, to be selfish is not the best deci... DEYTH BANGER We have held the peculiar notion that a person or society that is a little different from us, whoeve... CARL SAGAN Evil itself may be relentless. I will grant you that, but love is relentless too. Friendship is a re... DEAN KOONTZ All that belongs to human understanding, in this deep ignorance and obscurity, is to be skeptical, o... DAVID HUME The belief that one's own view of reality is the only reality is the most dangerous of all delusions PAUL WATZLAWICK The "L" word is one of the most widely used yet wrongly represented words. It is the most desired ta... RAYKA KUMRU The difference between a moral person and a person of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditab... SHANNON L. ALDER Shameful confession, one of my own Chelas (or so it is rather incredibly reported to me) said recent... ALEISTER CROWLEY That which stirs within, slows or quickens, goes deep or dies out. When I speak of spirit, I am not ... MARYA HORNBACHER As to the mouth, it delights at times in laughter; it is disposed to impart all that the brain conce... CHARLOTTE BRONTë There's going to be the regular scrutiny and judgment of whether a particular company is worth inves... ALAN HEVESI Man is a mixture of good and evil, and he can never be perfected in this life. The notion of his nat... RICHARD WEAVER You should regard each meeting with a friend as a sitting he is unwillingly giving you for a portrai... HOPE MIRRLEES Vaccination is a barbarous practice and one of the most fatal of all the delusions current in our ti... MAHATMA GANDHI His life seemed like a deck of cards, and in the midst of all those two’s and three’s someone ha... TEKOA MANNING The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act... H. L. MENCKEN The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable ac... H.L. MENCKEN The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act... HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN The Covenant of Grace is that eternal and intimate bond of friendship that God has established with ... JOSEPH C. MORECRAFT III I've got three basic, foolish thoughts today about taxes. Let's take it right off with number one, w... DAVID GARDNER The friendship between a man and a woman which does not lead to marriage or desire for marriage may ... ANNA SPENCER The friendship between a man and a woman which does not lead to marriage or desire for marriage may ... ANNA GARLIN SPENCER Human beings are too important to be treated as mere symptoms of the past. They have a value which i... LYTTON STRACHEY The last and highest result of prayer is not the securing of this or that gift, the avoiding of this... GEORGE JOHN BLEWETT The tattoo is just setting below his hp bone. H e l l i s e m p t y a n d a l l t h e d ... TAHEREH MAFI The most monumental events in all of human history all began with one person. And in a world that’... CRAIG D. LOUNSBROUGH That which exists through itself is called The Eternal. The Eternal has neither name nor shape. It i... BERTRAND RUSSELL 37. It is better to be single and unhappy than unhappily married. JAMES C. DOBSON There is no one way to salvation, whatever the manner in which a man may proceed. All forms and vari... MIYAMOTO MUSASHI From time immemorial, some men supposed to deal in one-valued 'eternal verities'. We called such men... ALFRED KORZYBSKI The secret of my success is my hairspray. RICHARD GERE Love is blind, and a deaf-mute too. PATRICK ROTHFUSS My advice in a nutshell is to learn to forgive one another. And keep nurturing the marital friendshi... KATHY T. HEUSTESS In the last analysis, it is our conception of death which decides our answers to all the questions t... DAG HAMMARSKJOLD I prayed for the city to be cleared of people, for the gift of being alone—a-l-o-n-e: which is the... J.D. SALINGER The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment,... JOSEPH ADDISON One thing it highlights, again, is the wrong-headedness of the notion that higher state taxes and in... MATTHEW MAGUIRE There is no such thing as Freedom (though it is the most important condition of human life, after Hu... JOHN BERRYMAN Employers have gone away from the idea that an employee is a long-term asset to the company, someone... BARBARA EHRENREICH If life is a bowl of cherries, what's inside of it? JOSH STERN I think that many people will intentionally overlook all of the lifeless facts about their relations... C. JOYBELL C.
More H. L. Mencken
Honor is simply the morality of superior men. H. L. MENCKEN A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married. H. L. MENCKEN There is always an easy solution to every problem - neat, plausible, and wrong. H. L. MENCKEN Temptation is a woman's weapon and man's excuse. H. L. MENCKEN For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. H. L. MENCKEN The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. H. L. MENCKEN A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier. H. L. MENCKEN A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar. H. L. MENCKEN Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin sl... H. L. MENCKEN Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop. H. L. MENCKEN On one issue, at least, men and women agree; they both distrust women. H. L. MENCKEN The most valuable of all human possessions, next to a superior and disdainful air, is the reputation... H. L. MENCKEN Nothing is so abject and pathetic as a politician who has lost his job, save only a retired stud-hor... H. L. MENCKEN A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground. H. L. MENCKEN One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms. It is not only more effective; it is also vastly ... H. L. MENCKEN I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to ... H. L. MENCKEN Time stays, we go. H. L. MENCKEN A nun, at best, is only half a woman, just as a priest is only half a man. H. L. MENCKEN The truth is, as every one knows, that the great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom... H. L. MENCKEN Archbishop -- A Christian ecclesiastic of a rank superior to that attained by Christ. H. L. MENCKEN A church is a place in which gentlemen who have never been to heaven brag about it to persons who wi... H. L. MENCKEN All the political seers and sorcerers seem to be agreed that the coming Presidential campaign will b... H. L. MENCKEN The time must come inevitably when mankind shall surmount the imbecility of religion, as it has surm... H. L. MENCKEN The chief knowledge that a man gets from reading books is the knowledge that very few of them are wo... H. L. MENCKEN There are two kinds of books. Those that no one reads and those that no one ought to read. H. L. MENCKEN There are people who read too much: bibliobibuli. I know some who are constantly drunk on books, as ... H. L. MENCKEN War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adr... H. L. MENCKEN Love is an emotion that is based on an opinion of women that is impossible for those who have had an... H. L. MENCKEN Love is the delusion that one man or woman differs from another. H. L. MENCKEN To be in love is merely to be in a perpetual state of anesthesia. H. L. MENCKEN I write in order to attain that feeling of tension relieved and function achieved which a cow enjoys... H. L. MENCKEN I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs. H. L. MENCKEN If I ever marry it will be on a sudden impulse, as a man shoots himself. H. L. MENCKEN Whenever a husband and wife begin to discuss their marriage they are giving evidence at a coroner's ... H. L. MENCKEN The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and hence clamorous to be led t... H. L. MENCKEN We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense that we respect his theory that ... H. L. MENCKEN It is a sin to believe in the evil of others, but it is seldom a mistake. H. L. MENCKEN Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party... H. L. MENCKEN We must be willing to pay a price for freedom. H. L. MENCKEN No man could bring himself to reveal his true character, and, above all, his true limitations as a c... H. L. MENCKEN School-days, I believe, are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence. They are full of du... H. L. MENCKEN Let's not burn the universities yet. After all, the damage they do might be worse. H. L. MENCKEN The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all: it is simply to reduce as many in... H. L. MENCKEN The curse of man, and the cause of nearly all his woe, is his stupendous capacity for believing the ... H. L. MENCKEN It is a sin to believe evil of others, but it is seldom a mistake. H. L. MENCKEN Fame: an embalmer trembling with stage fright. H. L. MENCKEN So few men are really worth knowing, that it seems a shameful waste to let an anthropoid prejudice s... H. L. MENCKEN One may no more live in the world without picking up the moral prejudices of the world than one will... H. L. MENCKEN The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false face for the urge to rule it. H. L. MENCKEN Man is always looking for someone to boast to; woman is always looking for a shoulder to put her hea... H. L. MENCKEN A man's women folk, whatever their outward show of respect for his merit and authority, always regar... H. L. MENCKEN Men have a much better time of it than women. For one thing, they marry later, for another thing, th... H. L. MENCKEN Man weeps to think that he will die so soon; woman, that she was born so long ago. H. L. MENCKEN Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives. H. L. MENCKEN Bachelors know more about women than married men; if they didn't, they'd be married too. H. L. MENCKEN It is impossible to believe that the same God who permitted His own son to die a bachelor regards ce... H. L. MENCKEN To the best of my knowledge and belief, the average American newspaper, even of the so-called better... H. L. MENCKEN The opera is to music what a bawdy house is to a cathedral. H. L. MENCKEN Time is the great equalizer in the field of morals. H. L. MENCKEN The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act... H. L. MENCKEN Morality is the theory that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that 99% of them are ... H. L. MENCKEN Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he... H. L. MENCKEN The average man does not get pleasure out of an idea because he thinks it is true; he thinks it is t... H. L. MENCKEN Women have simple tastes. They get pleasure out of the conversation of children in arms and men in l... H. L. MENCKEN A metaphysician is one who, when you remark that twice two makes four, demands to know what you mean... H. L. MENCKEN Philosophy consists very largely of one philosopher arguing that all others are jackasses. He usuall... H. L. MENCKEN There is no record in history of a happy philosopher. H. L. MENCKEN An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it is a... H. L. MENCKEN Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sign that he expects to be paid f... H. L. MENCKEN A society made up of individuals who were all capable of original thought would probably be unendura... H. L. MENCKEN Don't overestimate the decency of the human race. H. L. MENCKEN Man is never honestly the fatalist, nor even the stoic. He fights his fate, often desperately. He is... H. L. MENCKEN I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upo... H. L. MENCKEN There is nothing worse than an idle hour, with no occupation offering. People who have many such hou... H. L. MENCKEN Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that th... H. L. MENCKEN One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms. It is not only more effective; it is also vastly m... H. L. MENCKEN A prohibitionist is the sort of man one couldn't care to drink with, even if he drank. H. L. MENCKEN On one issue at least, men and women agree; they both distrust women. H. L. MENCKEN The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery ... H. L. MENCKEN Communism, like any other revealed religion, is largely made up of prophecies. H. L. MENCKEN What men value in this world is not rights but privileges. H. L. MENCKEN The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor. H. L. MENCKEN Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends. H. L. MENCKEN Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking. H. L. MENCKEN Life is a constant oscillation between the sharp horns of dilemmas. H. L. MENCKEN If I had my way, no man guilty of golf would be eligible to any office of trust under the United Sta... H. L. MENCKEN It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite eas... H. L. MENCKEN Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their ... H. L. MENCKEN The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy. H. L. MENCKEN Democracy is the theory that the common people know what They want, and deserve to get it good and h... H. L. MENCKEN Democracy is also a form of religion. It is the worship of jackals by jackasses. H. L. MENCKEN The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest... H. L. MENCKEN The truth that survives is simply the lie that is pleasantest to believe. H. L. MENCKEN Lying is not only excusable; it is not only innocent; it is, above all, necessary and unavoidable. W... H. L. MENCKEN It is impossible to think of a man of any actual force and originality, universally recognized as ha... H. L. MENCKEN Criticism is prejudice made plausible. H. L. MENCKEN A celebrity is one who is known to many persons he is glad he doesn't know. H. L. MENCKEN Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. H. L. MENCKEN As the arteries grow hard, the heart grows soft. H. L. MENCKEN Have you ever watched a crab on the shore crawling backward in search of the Atlantic Ocean, and mis... H. L. MENCKEN Man is a beautiful machine that works very badly. H. L. MENCKEN The basic fact about human existence is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not s... H. L. MENCKEN Historian -- an unsuccessful novelist. H. L. MENCKEN Jealousy is the theory that some other fellow has just as little taste. H. L. MENCKEN The evidence of the emotions, save in cases where it has strong objective support, is really no evid... H. L. MENCKEN Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, a... H. L. MENCKEN The legislature, like the executive, has ceased to be even the creature of the people: it is the cre... H. L. MENCKEN The objection of the scandalmonger is not that she tells of racy doings, but that she pretends to be... H. L. MENCKEN God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the miserable. They find not only san... H. L. MENCKEN The movies today are too rich to have any room for genuine artists. They produce a few passable craf... H. L. MENCKEN Injustice is relatively easy to bear what stings is justice. H. L. MENCKEN The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the ... H. L. MENCKEN JUDGE, n: A law student who marks his own papers. H. L. MENCKEN Most people want security in this world, not liberty. H. L. MENCKEN The fact that I have no remedy for all the sorrows of the world is no reason for my accepting yours.... H. L. MENCKEN Thanksgiving Day is a day devoted by persons with inflammatory rheumatism to thanking a loving Fathe... H. L. MENCKEN Temptation is a woman's weapon and man's excuse. H. L. MENCKEN The lunatic fringe wags the underdog. H. L. MENCKEN Hygiene is the corruption of medicine by morality. It is impossible to find a hygienist who does not... H. L. MENCKEN Opera in English, is about as sensible as baseball in Italian. H. L. MENCKEN The Belief that man is outfitted with an immortal soul, differing altogether from the engines which ... H. L. MENCKEN Alimony -- the ransom that the happy pay to the devil. H. L. MENCKEN A gentlemen is one who never strikes a woman without provocation. H. L. MENCKEN No one hates his job so heartily as a farmer. H. L. MENCKEN The public, with its mob yearning to be instructed, edified and pulled by the nose, demands certaint... H. L. MENCKEN It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull. H. L. MENCKEN When women kiss it always reminds one of prize-fighters shaking hands. H. L. MENCKEN A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin. H. L. MENCKEN The cynics are right nine times out of ten. H. L. MENCKEN The only cure for contempt is counter-contempt. H. L. MENCKEN Imagine the Creator as a stand up comedian - and at once the world becomes explicable. H. L. MENCKEN It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though sh... H. L. MENCKEN After all, all he did was string together a lot of old, well-known quotations. H. L. MENCKEN Unionism, seldom if ever, uses such powers as it has to ensure better work; almost always it devotes... H. L. MENCKEN I never agree with Communists or any other kind of kept men. H. L. MENCKEN The idea that leisure is of value in itself is only conditionally true. The average man simply spend... H. L. MENCKEN Remorse is regret that one waited so long to do it. H. L. MENCKEN Self-respect: the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious. H. L. MENCKEN Life is a dead-end street. H. L. MENCKEN It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though sh... H. L. MENCKEN It doesn't take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound c... H. L. MENCKEN The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act... H. L. MENCKEN No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. H. L. MENCKEN The truth is that the average schoolmaster, on all the lower levels, is and always must be essential... H. L. MENCKEN The more a man dreams, the less he believes. H. L. MENCKEN On one issue at least, men and women agree: they both distrust women. H. L. MENCKEN Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays twice as much in taxes as he former... H. L. MENCKEN The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the... H. L. MENCKEN Before a man speaks, it is always safe to assume that he is a fool. After he speaks it is seldom nec... H. L. MENCKEN How little it takes to make life unbearable: a pebble in the shoe, a cockroach in the spaghetti, a w... H. L. MENCKEN The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in which it is overestimated. H. L. MENCKEN Misogynist: A man who hates women as much as women hate one another. H. L. MENCKEN The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundre... H. L. MENCKEN Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking. H. L. MENCKEN The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other a... H. L. MENCKEN Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. H. L. MENCKEN To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for idea... H. L. MENCKEN The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another... H. L. MENCKEN I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time. H. L. MENCKEN It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf. H. L. MENCKEN Alimony - the ransom that the happy pay to the devil. H. L. MENCKEN On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at la... H. L. MENCKEN Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. H. L. MENCKEN In war the heroes always outnumber the soldiers ten to one. H. L. MENCKEN The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief ... H. L. MENCKEN It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common hones... H. L. MENCKEN Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution? H. L. MENCKEN In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice t... H. L. MENCKEN The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led t... H. L. MENCKEN It doesn't take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sou... H. L. MENCKEN Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage. H. L. MENCKEN An idealist is one who, on noticing that roses smell better than a cabbage, concludes that it will a... H. L. MENCKEN Every man sees in his relatives, and especially in his cousins, a series of grotesque caricatures of... H. L. MENCKEN Strike an average between what a woman thinks of her husband a month before she marries him and what... H. L. MENCKEN Democracy is only a dream: it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven... H. L. MENCKEN Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another. H. L. MENCKEN No one in this world, so far as I know - and I have searched the records for years, and employed age... H. L. MENCKEN The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear - fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexpl... H. L. MENCKEN No matter how happily a woman may be married, it always pleases her to discover that there is a nice... H. L. MENCKEN I never lecture, not because I am shy or a bad speaker, but simply because I detest the sort of peop... H. L. MENCKEN The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regar... H. L. MENCKEN Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy. H. L. MENCKEN I never smoked a cigarette until I was nine. H. L. MENCKEN If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries fo... H. L. MENCKEN It is not materialism that is the chief curse of the world, as pastors teach, but idealism. Men get ... H. L. MENCKEN Poetry has done enough when it charms, but prose must also convince. H. L. MENCKEN Before a man speaks it is always safe to assume that he is a fool. After he speaks, it is seldom nec... H. L. MENCKEN For it is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together. Our f... H. L. MENCKEN Bachelors know more about women than married men; if they didn't they'd be married too. H. L. MENCKEN Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods. H. L. MENCKEN Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out twice as much in taxes as he fo... H. L. MENCKEN Legend: A lie that has attained the dignity of age. H. L. MENCKEN Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under. H. L. MENCKEN It is hard for the ape to believe he descended from man. H. L. MENCKEN Archbishop - A Christian ecclesiastic of a rank superior to that attained by Christ. H. L. MENCKEN Adultery is the application of democracy to love. H. L. MENCKEN Each party steals so many articles of faith from the other, and the candidates spend so much time ma... H. L. MENCKEN Have you ever watched a crab on the shore crawling backward in search of the Atlantic Ocean, and mis... H. L. MENCKEN A national political campaign is better than the best circus ever heard of, with a mass baptism and ... H. L. MENCKEN There is a saying in Baltimore that crabs may be prepared in fifty ways and that all of them are goo... H. L. MENCKEN