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There are people who read too much: bibliobibuli. I know some who are constantly drunk on books, as other men are drunk on whiskey or religion. They wander through this most diverting and stimulating of worlds in a haze, seeing nothing and hearing nothing.


H. L. Mencken

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There are people who read too much: bibliobibuli. I know some who are constantly drunk on books, as ...
RICHARD M. NIXON I know some who are constantly drunk on books as other men are drunk on whiskey.
H.L. MENCKEN When you are on your purpose, your preoccupation isn't what you don't have yet. You've already drunk...
ASSEGID HABTEWOLD Take me to the height where success would seek my help to succeed!
I ARE Electronic books are ideal for people who value the information contained in them, or who have visio...
JOE QUEENAN Here's a top tip: get hold of a hardback edition of one of these pompous books, cut out the middle c...
A. CRETAN As the arteries grow hard, the heart grows soft. -H. L. Mencken.
H. L. MENCKEN If we're looking at what's killing people in this or really any other state, as much as we fear gang...
RICHARD ALPERT You don't have people sitting on a jury who are going out and shooting people. But you do have peopl...
ATTORNEY DAVE STENGEL There are two kinds of men who never amount to much -- those who cannot do what they are told and th...
CYRUS H. K CURTIS There are two kinds of men who never amount to much: those who cannot do what they are told, and tho...
CYRUS H. CURTIS There are two kinds of men who never amount to much: those who cannot do what they are told and thos...
CYRUS H. CURTIS Men and women are immigrants in each other's worlds.
YAKOV SMIRNOFF The people are hearing the story on the radio. They're hearing it on the newscast, and they're obvio...
MONTE MILLER There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating --people who know absolutely everythin...
OSCAR WILDE There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating; people who know absolutely everything...
OSCAR WILDE There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything...
OSCAR WILDE Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. -H. L. Mencken.
H. L. MENCKEN There are still some people out there who believe comic books are nothing more than, well, comic boo...
JOHN RIDLEY The worst thing about some men is that when they are not drunk they are sober.
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS The worst thing about some men is that when they are not drunk they are sober.
W.B. YEATS There are the people who read my horror novels - the first two of them - and they found them scary o...
DAVID WONG The numbers were nothing too special, it wasn't the most optimistic reading, ... We're just seeing a...
JAMES PARK Though there are some notable exceptions, by and large the persistent ranting of the Warren Commissi...
VINCENT BUGLIOSI There are two kinds of people who never amount to much: those who cannot do what they are told, and ...
CYRUS CURTIS Mountains have a decent influence on men. I have never met along the trails of the high mountains a ...
WILLIAM ORVILLE DOUGLAS As the arteries grow hard, the heart grows soft. thanks to Alan Bennett -H. L. Mencken.
H. L. MENCKEN Am I drunk?" he asked Crewcut.
"You're not drunk, Boss," Crewcut replied. "How could a superior...
MO YAN I think most people equate drunk driving to someone who stumbles out of the bar and is drunk, but yo...
MARK MITCHELL Men know they are sexual exiles. They wander the earth seeking satisfaction, craving and despising, ...
CAMILLE ANNA PAGLIA Men know they are sexual exiles. They wander the earth seeking satisfaction, craving and despising, ...
CAMILLE PAGLIA One cliché attached to bookish people is that they are lonely, but for me books were my way out of ...
MATT HAIG that there are some people on earth who are so wicked and so evil that nothing can be done but to co...
ALEXANDER DOWNER People constantly speak of "the government" doing this or that, as they might speak of God doing it....
H.L. MENCKEN When you have the strength to stand up for yourself ,the ones you love and the dignity and honor to ...
GARY F EVANS... We have this weird thing in the world where you don't get insulted for what you do, you get insulted...
JOHN GREEN Are you a stupid sheep in the flock or a free eagle in the sky? Look at the mirror, what are you? Ar...
MEHMET MURAT ILDAN I admit I'm an escapist when it comes to books. I become drunk on story, on words, as a buffer again...
JOANNA DAVIDSON POLITANO These people who are being arrested are really drunk. We're not going up to random people.
CAROLYN BECK There is nothing like people who love who they are, and love what they love.
NORA MCINERNY PURMORT Those persons who suffer from indigestion, or who become drunk, are utterly ignorant of the true pri...
JEAN ANTHELME BRILLAT-SAVARIN The man who gets drunk in peacetime is a coward. The man who gets drunk in wartime goes on being a c...
JOSE BERGAMIN If you are the type of person who thinks too much about stuff then there is nothing lonelier in the ...
MATT HAIG Anyone who goes through life trusting people without making sure they are worthy of trust is a fool....
ELIZABETH ASTON Fortunately, I get asked to play - regardless of how big or small they are - some really interesting...
BILL CAMP The happy people are those who are producing something; the bored people are those who are consuming...
W. R. [WILLIAM RALPH] INGE The happy people are those who are producing something; the bored people are those who are consuming...
DEAN INGE Do the children who prefer books set in the real, ordinary, workaday world ever read as obsessively ...
LAURA MILLER There are men who can write poetry, and there are men who can read balance sheets. The men who can r...
HENRY R. LUCE There are men who can write poetry, and there are men who can read balance sheets. The men who can...
HENRY R. LUCE Agnosticism has nothing to impart. Its sermons are the exhortations of one who convinces you he stan...
ANNA JULIA COOPER There are some people who like nothing better than a good, regular quarrel.
JUDE MORGAN I think some guys take advantage of girls who are drunk. The best thing they need to do is walk away...
ADAM FISHER People are who they are and, try as you might, you cannot make them be what you want them to be.
LEILA SALES Know who you are and be who you are insofar as it is deem fit, for there is nothing so contemptuous ...
ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH I hope that maybe it just gets them to think there are cops out there and they are going to be crack...
LAUREN EIGEN When the doors of opportunity swing open, we must make sure that we are not too drunk or too indiffe...
JESSE JACKSON National Observer became my road gig out of San Francisco. I was too much for them. I would wander i...
HUNTER S. THOMPSON There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there...
DOUGLAS EVERETT There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there...
DOUGLAS H. EVERETT There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there...
DESIDERIUS ERASMUS There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then the...
DOUGLAS EVERETT Who are you?” I asked.
“Are we playing that game again?” she asked me with a nice smile. ...
NICO J. GENES An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wise...
CHARLES DARWIN An American Monkey after getting drunk on Brandy would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser ...
CHARLES DARWIN Is it too much?"
"No. It's like you completed the circuit," I say, gripping his other hand. "I ...
RAINBOW ROWELL A lot of men are very possessive and they want to control you. But as you grow older, you attract pe...
MARISA BERENSON I think there are a small number of very powerful members of the House who have never supported incr...
RON BERSANI Could the two people who are making out please be quiet?" the Colonel asked loudly from his sleeping...
JOHN GREEN There are some men who are frightened by strong women and some men who are nurtured by them and feel...
JULIAN FELLOWES People in general are equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion doubted, and seeing it pra...
SAMUEL BUTLER What you are seeing and hearing right now is nothing but a dream. You are dreaming right now in this...
MIGUEL RUIZ Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.
CAMILLE PISSARRO Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing
CAMILLE PISSARRO Her eyes were the color of whiskey and grace. Moments with her always felt like getting drunk on Sun...
B. DEVINE People do tell a writer things that they don't tell others. I don't know why, unless it is that havi...
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM Those who have been too long at their labor, who have drunk too long at the cup of voluptuousness, w...
JEAN-ANTHELME BRILLAT-SAVARIN Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they kn...
VOLTAIRE (FRANçOIS-MARIE AROUET) Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they kn...
VOLTAIRE Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they kn...
VOLTAIRE It is time to get drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of Time, get drunk; get drunk without s...
CHARLES BAUDELAIRE who are you
really?

you are not a name
or a height, or a weight
or a gende...
M.K Are shadows a shadowy reflection of the soul or is it a reflection of who we really are, or possibly...
GARY F EVANS... I wanted to show these people who he really was. And pain always did that, took the insides out." VERONICS ROTH We oft know little of who we were, only something of who we are, and nothing of who we may be.
CHARLIE FLETCHER You are not born with beauty, your beauty is created by who you are. Your inner beauty is more impor...
EMILY COUSSONS It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generousl...
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT There's nothing left . . . but to get drunk.
FRANKLIN PIERCE They are looking at me to be a utility guy. On some nights, be a four or five, or on some nights be ...
JAMIE HEWARD There are several authors who are also lawyers - and not only the ones who write legal thrillers. Th...
CANDACE CAMP People in general are equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion doubted, and at seeing it ...
SAMUEL BUTLER There are men and women still on the streets, and that's all they are saying Can you spare a quarter...
ABBEY LINCOLN There are hundreds of good men in this business and hundreds of good women and there are some who ar...
LESLEY VISSER People here know that this is a special place, ... especially the people who have worked at other st...
LEE UNKRICH when I said 'much ado about nothing,' I was putting myself in the place of these particular individu...
JESSE VENTURA Murderers, in general, are people who are consistent, people who are obsessed with one idea and noth...
UGO BETTI Murderers, in general, are people who are consistent, people who are obsessed with one idea and noth...
UGO BETTI There are other kitchens running locally, but you know there are lots of folks who may not get the r...
ALAN COLE Some people not only like or share some news or someone’s views on own social media account but al...
ANUJ SOMANY We all have a duty to define who we are
SOTONYE ANGA

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 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 A bad man is the sort who weeps every time he speaks of a good woman.
H. L. MENCKEN