Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping and unintelligent.
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 Both [P. T.] Barnum and H. L. Mencken are said to have made the depressing observation that no one e... CARL SAGAN I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES Though there are some notable exceptions, by and large the persistent ranting of the Warren Commissi... VINCENT BUGLIOSI There are only really a few stories to tell in the end, and betrayal and the failure of love is one ... SEAN LENNON The public sector certainly includes the Department of Labor. Those are jobs that are available. The... ALEXIS HERMAN A slave government is an oligarchy; and one, too, of the most arbitrary and criminal character. LYSANDER SPOONER The public sector certainly includes the Department of Labor. Those are jobs that are available. The... ALEXIS HERMAN Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you... C. JOYBELL C. All three branches of government are critical [even in] those southeastern states that are suffering... ORRIN HATCH Even the worst feeling, with time and familiarity, became tolerable. CARAGH M. O'BRIEN Boyhood is a most complex and incomprehensible thing. Even when one has been through it, one does no... G. K. CHESTERTON The worst government is the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. B... HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN The worst government is the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. Bu... H.L. MENCKEN The worst government is the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. Bu... HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and huma... H. L. MENCKEN So many kids are going more and more into the different focus like technology. That's one of the are... DIANE MILLER There has never been a failure of a currency board anywhere in the world. These are tough systems, a... STEVE HANKE Take me to the height where success would seek my help to succeed! I ARE The celebrity-chef thing, even at its worst, its most annoying, its silliest, its goofiest, its most... ANTHONY BOURDAIN Civilized are not those who never make mistakes – civilized are those who learn from their mistake... ABHIJIT NASKAR Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pre... SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pre... WINSTON CHURCHILL There are only two states in the nation that allow for a government to take private property and tur... BRUCE HILLIS Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pre... SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL 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 assertion that you are in falsehood and I am in truth ist the most cruel thing one man can say t... LEO TOLSTOY Good and bad are really arbitrary words when it comes to character. ANSON MOUNT No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is th... SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL Man...is a tame or civilized animal; never the less, he requires proper instruction and a fortunate ... PLATO I feel bad that I'm the one always blamed for the failure of the space business - even though th... YI SO-YEON Our worst enemies here are not the ignorant and simple, however cruel; our worst enemies are the int... GRAHAM GREENE Our worst enemies here are not the ignorant and simple, however cruel; our worst enemies are the int... GRAHAM GREENE I consider that there are different degrees of civilization and there are many different ways of exp... FLORA LEWIS It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder; for the belief of a cruel God... THOMAS PAINE It comes down to the simple idea that government has grown substantially under Barack Obama, and gov... SEAN DUFFY One moment you are here, othere there, then there. Then you can't move! DEYTH BANGER A rude nature is worse than a brute nature by so much more as man is better than a beast: and those ... MARGARET CAVENDISH I am convinced that there are only two types of companies: those that have been hacked and those tha... ROBERT MUELLER Doubts are more cruel than the worst of truths. MOLIERE Everyone is the Umbrella Man and he is everyone. Every cough, sneeze, smile and wave means both ever... CRAIG CLEVENGER Dogs are the best and worst of ourselves. They seem at once so civilized and so wild. ELIZABETH MANSFIELD Humans are in delusion by default, and those who conquer their delusion can understand good and evil... M.F. MOONZAJER I think they really connect across generations. I really find that pop music has really been the mos... DAN GERDEMAN I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by it's system of cred... WOODROW T. WILSON The man who forms the habit of beginning without finishing has simply formed the habit of failure.... MRS. CHARLES E. COWMAN Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the worl... ERNEST HEMINGWAY I believe most people are good, even deep down, even if you have to dig a little - although some peo... CHRISTINA ENGELA Those objecting to the concept of race argue that the taxonomic definitions are arbitrary and subjec... J. PHILIPPE RUSHTON It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been... WINSTON CHURCHILL It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been... SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL As I said there is nothing wrong with failing. Pick yourself up and try it again. You never are goin... HENRY KRAVIS I believe that there is a Matrix and... to be more accurate I am in the Pornography Matrix. DEYTH BANGER There are eight levels of wizardry on the Disc; after sixteen years Rincewind has failed to achieve ... TERRY PRATCHETT We are about to make motherhood a crime. No civilized government in the history of mankind has ever ... ADRIAN G. DUPLANTIER Even though we are very strong on the domestic base, the competition internationally has never been ... ELIZABETH RICH Well that's true, and what is actually happening now is that there are accusations that those re... LOUIS STOKES I I I I I I t t t t t t i i i i i i s s s s s s u u u u u u n n n n n n f f f f f f o o o o o o r r ... TODD COBURN What we are trying very hard to convince government of is that, as they pursue these types of aggres... FRED NEUKAMM Biographical data, even those recorded in the public registers, are the most private things one has,... ITALO CALVINO There isn't a whole lot of government self-regulation over privacy. There are some really, really go... RICHARD PURCELL For business owners, there are many important documents to learn to read. One of the most important ... DARREN L JOHNSON It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect governme... ALEXANDER HAMILTON To value riches is not to be covetous. They are the gift of God, and, like every gift of his, good i... H. L. WAYLAND The worst type of failure is that you do not even try at all. ZENG HAN JUN The problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented, but that socialism has b... DONALD J. TRUMP Laws fixed, certain, and uniform, are said to be the distinguishing traits of civilized from savage ... LEVI WOODBURY Religion has not civilized man, man has civilized religion. ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL Religion has not civilized man, man has civilized religion ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL A man is never completely alone in this world. At the worst, he has the company of a boy, a youth, a... CESARE PAVESE A man is never completely alone in this world. At the worst, he has the company of a boy, a youth, a... CESARE PAVESE Dieting is not the answer. Eating more of the things that are good for us and less of those that are... DR. ELIZABETH PIVONKA Dieting is not the answer. Eating more of the things that are good for us and less of those that are... ELIZABETH PIVONKA There is an increasingly pervasive sense not only of failure, but of futility. 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FRANK HERBERT There are many men who are forgotten, who are despised, and who are trampled on by their fellows, bu... CHARLES SPURGEON Those who appear the most sanctified are the worst. ELIZABETH I Our worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. And your best days are... JERRY BRIDGES Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. And your
best days ar... JERRY BRIDGES I've never been specifically attached to westerns, but there are those I like - one of the best ... MADS MIKKELSEN Jeff VandeGrift has been in control and has gotten most of the reps. He played a lot better last wee... DOUG PRESTON The worst superstition is to consider our own tolerable. DORIS LESSING The reasons most often given are that lists are arbitrary, and reflect the tastes of the people putt... CHARLES HARRIS Life goes by really fast, and it seems that there are times when you're burying a lot of friends... AMY GRANT Of puns it has been said that those who most dislike them are those who are least able to utter them... EDGAR ALLAN POE Of puns it has been said that those who most dislike them are those who are least able to utter them EDGAR ALLAN POE That young girl is one of the least benightedly unintelligent organic life forms it has been my prof... , _LIFE, THE UNIVERSE, AND EVERYTHING_ BY DOUGLAS ADAMS That young girl is one of the least benightedly unintelligent organic life forms it has been my prof... DOUGLAS ADAMS Argentina and Burma. I have been to most of the countries in the world, but not those two. I want to... JEREMY CLARKSON Disclaimer - These opiini^H^H damn! ^H^H ^Q ^[ .... :w :q :wq :wq! ^d X ^? exit X Q ^C ^? :quitbye C... B. F. SKINNER There are some things a girl never forgets, Ry. And one of those is a kiss from the right guy JULIE JAMES
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 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