H. L. Mencken quotes - page 11

If women believed in their husbands they would be a good deal happier and also a good deal more foolish. (H. L. Mencken)
The first kiss is stolen by the man; the last is begged by the woman. View quote
H. L. Mencken
It doesn't take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause. View quote
H. L. Mencken
All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him. View quote
H. L. Mencken
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? View quote
H. L. Mencken
The fact is that the average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth. View quote
H. L. Mencken
A man who can laugh, if only at himself, is never really miserable. View quote
H. L. Mencken
Human life is basically a comedy. View quote
H. L. Mencken
I know some who are constantly drunk on books as other men are drunk on whiskey. View quote
H. L. Mencken
I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech - alike for the humblest man and the mightiest, and in the utmost freedom of conduct that is consistent with living in organized society. View quote
H. L. Mencken
Religion, after all, is nothing but an hypothesis framed to account for what is evidentially unaccounted for. (H. L. Mencken)
Laws are no longer made by a rational process of public discussion; they are made by a process of blackmail and intimidation, and they are executed in the same manner. View quote
H. L. Mencken
I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious. View quote
H. L. Mencken
The final test of truth is ridicule. Very few dogmas have ever faced it and survived. View quote
H. L. Mencken
Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem - neat, plausible, and wrong. View quote
H. L. Mencken
You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth. View quote
H. L. Mencken
The trouble with Communism is the Communists, just as the trouble with Christianity is the Christians. View quote
H. L. Mencken
When somebody says it's not about the money, it's about the money. View quote
H. L. Mencken
The older I get the more I admire and crave competence, just simple competence, in any field from adultery to zoology. View quote
H. L. Mencken
The great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable. View quote
H. L. Mencken
Religion is a conceited effort to deny the most obvious realities. (H. L. Mencken)
Men in the mass never brook the destructive discussion of their fundamental beliefs, and that impatience is naturally most evident in those societies in which men in the mass are most influential. Democracy and free speech are not facets of one gem; democracy and free speech are eternal enemies. View quote
H. L. Mencken
Socialism is the theory that the desire of one man to get something he hasn't got is more pleasing to a just God than the desire of some other man to keep what he has got. View quote
H. L. Mencken
Of all escape mechanisms, death is the most efficient. View quote
H. L. Mencken
At the bottom of Puritanism one finds envy of the fellow who is having a better time in the world, and hence hatred of him. At the bottom of democracy one finds the same thing. This is why all Puritans are democrats and all democrats are Puritans. View quote
H. L. Mencken