He sees daily evidence that many things held to be true by nine-tenths of all men are, in reality, false, and he is thereby apt to acquire a doubt of everything, including his own beliefs.
H.L. Mencken
Related He believed in his position and he wanted to be true to his beliefs and he stuck with that. LARRY BLOOM He who regards another's wife as his mother, the wealth that does not belong to him as a lump of mud... CHANAKYA The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life-by developing his mind and ... AYN RAND A man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true, for if the... SIR ISAAC NEWTON A man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true, for if the... ISAAC NEWTON He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self... BUDDHA The philosopher is like a man fasting in the midst of universal intoxication. He alone perceives the... HENRI FREDERIC AMIEL The philosopher is like a man fasting in the midst of universal intoxication. He alone perceives the... HENRI FREDERIC AMIEL [If a man] postpone[s] any open acknowledgement... that his own faith is in direct opposition to the... C.S. LEWIS Surrealism also refuses the representation of reality: reality can only be; its existence proves its... MICHAEL RICHARDSON I always say perseverance is nine-tenths of any art — not that it's much help to be nine-tenths an... PETER S. BEAGLE The processes of teaching the child that everything cannot be as he wills it are apt to be painful b... ANNE SULLIVAN And as he dug, he wept. He saw Hari's animated face, and numberless dead men, and the hatred on the ... J.G. FARRELL He said to us that nothing in the indictment is false. Everything is true. He admits that on camera. BOB SIMON There are men in this courtroom who are walking around and breathing because Duke Cunningham put his... LEE BLALACK I dont doubt that Bush probably believes most of his own rhetoric (even he couldnt possibly beli... JULES CARLYSLE Complacency may often result from being surrounded by a team of flatterers and false people around. ... APURVA GAGLANI A painter must think of everything he sees as being there entirely for his own use and pleasure. LUCIAN FREUD True love brings up everything - you're allowing a mirror to be held up to you daily. JENNIFER ANISTON Many of the writers who have inspired me most are outside the genre: Humorists like Robert Benchley ... JOHN SCALZI Nine-tenths of English poetic literature is the result either of vulgar careerism or of a poet tryin... ROBERT GRAVES A terrorist is the most foolish and naïve. He is drunk with fixed false beliefs that killing his ne... DEBASISH MRIDHA A man climbs the mountains because he needs to climb, because that is the way he is made, Rock and i... JAMES RAMSEY ULLMAN By what criteria can one decide which of a person's countless beliefs are primitive? The essential f... MILTON ROKEACH But the man who is not afraid to admit everything that he sees to be wrong with himself, and yet rec... THOMAS MERTON The reality is that we will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden. He will neve... ERIC HOLDER Many ask "What is the meaning of life?" The answer is simple, to worship G-D and to completely submi... TROY J. GAINEY Secondly, the proper counsel and intention of God in sending his Son into the world to die was, that... JOHN OWEN A blind man knows he cannot see, and is glad to be led, though it be by a dog; but he that is blind ... SAMUEL BUTLER A blind man knows he cannot see, and is glad to be led, though it be by a dog; but he that is blind ... SAMUEL BUTLER A true prophet would rather be believed false by many but actually true than believed true by many b... CRISS JAMI Acquire the courage to believe in yourself. Many of the things that you have been taught were at one... CHING NING CHU [Mr. Gifford] made it much his business to deliver the people of God from all those false and unsoun... JOHN BUNYAN A Christian sees all men as made in the image of God. All are sinners too, which means that the imag... ELISABETH ELLIOT HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers... AMBROSE BIERCE 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 He never looks you straight in the eye; or if he does, it is somehow vaguely, indefinitely; he does ... NIKOLAI GOGOL Such is the effect of the grace of God in the heart of a pilgrim; while on one hand he sees the prop... JOHN BUNYAN A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true. DEMOSTHENES I admit it is better fun to punt than be punted, and that a desire to have all the fun is nine-tenth... DOROTHY L. SAYERS He believed in his soldiers, and, in the true spirit of his profession, gave his life protecting his... ARMY SGT. The child often sees only what he already knows. He projects the whole of his verbal thought into th... JEAN PIAGET The true gentleman does not preach his beliefs until he does so by his actions. SOURCE UNKNOWN The hero is not fed on sweets, Daily his own heart he eats; Chambers of the great are jails, And hea... RALPH WALDO EMERSON A man is too apt to forget that in this world he cannot have everything. A choice is all that is lef... HARRY MATHEWS A man is too apt to forget that in this world he cannot have everything. A choice is all that is le... H MATHEWS A man is too apt to forget that in this world he cannot have everything. A choice is all that is lef... H. MATHEWS A man is too apt to forget that in this world he cannot have everything. A choice is all that is lef... HARRY MATTHEWS There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespre... ANTHONY DE MELLO There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespre... ANTHONY MELLO It was, he felt, a persistent flaw in his wife's otherwise practical and sensible character that she... TERRY PRATCHETT The facts are always friendly, every bit of evidence one can acquire, in any area, leads one that mu... CARL ROGERS The facts are always friendly, every bit of evidence one can acquire, in any area, leads one that mu... CARL R. ROGERS All men whilst they are awake are in one common world: but each of them, when he is asleep, is in a ... PLUTARCH There's certain things that had to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, ... So I'd have to be able t... EARL WILSON Having arrived at this point, he had found no direction in which to go save that of further withdraw... PAUL BOWLES A man must have a good deal of vanity who believes, and a good deal of boldness who affirms, that al... BENJAMIN FRANKLIN Nine times out of ten a man’s broad-mindedness is necessarily the narrowest thing about him. This ... G.K. CHESTERTON If we are to accept the teaching of Jesus at all, then the only test of the reality of a man's relig... WILLIAM BARCLAY A person may hold his own beliefs and creeds to be dearest, and nourish them with all his might, but... ABHIJIT NASKAR Time is that by which at every moment all things become as nothing in our hands, and thereby lose al... ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER If Christ is not all to you He is nothing to you. He will never go into partnership as a part Saviou... CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON There is one service men provide to women everywhere, regardless of race or culture, and that is cou... JERRY SEINFIELD To expect defeat is nine-tenths of defeat itself. FRANCIS CRAWFORD To expect defeat is nine-tenths of defeat itself. HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN To expect defeat is nine-tenths of defeat itself. FRANCIS MARION CRAWFORD If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man... BLAKE Remember: He WANTS your fellowship, and He has done everything possible to make it a reality. He has... BILLY GRAHAM The biggest crime in Nabokov's 'Lolita' is imposing your own dream upon someone else'... AZAR NAFISI The true artist is not proud: he unfortunately sees that art has no limits; he feels darkly how far ... LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Every individual...generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how ... ADAM SMITH Nine tenths of education is encouragement. ANATOLE FRANCE Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time. THEODORE ROOSEVELT The true barbarian is he who thinks everything barbarous but his own tastes and prejudices. WILLIAM HAZLITT No! No one who was great in the world will be forgotten, but everyone was great in his own way, and ... SøREN KIERKEGAARD He held his own out there. He wore down toward the end, which is to be expected, but he was solid. TONY MEOLA Commemoration of Crispin & Crispinian, Martyrs at Rome, c.285 The word "sinner" often proves a ... JOHN C. BENNETT In his voice resonated the timbre of a man who thinks he has convinced himself of an idea, but masks... KATHERINE HOWE The time for a person to instantly interact with his own soul, inspect his own mind and introspect w... ANUJ SOMANY Also, interestingly enough, some of the things he was accused of believing ...actually were not his ... ALAN COLMES A man who knows the world will not only make the most of everything he does know, but of many thin... COLTON Many times, the right man gets outnumbered by false and wrong people while the other true and honest... APURVA GAGLANI I admire Bill and everything he?s done for me and our program. He?s held me to a level of performanc... EMILY MCNAMARA The Boasting Traveler
A man who had traveled in foreign lands boasted very much, on returning to his... AESOP Possession isn't nine-tenths of the law. It's nine-tenths of the problem. JOHN LENNON Richard Dawkins regards faith as an evil to be eliminated; he takes all religious faith to be blind ... JOHN C. LENNOX He created his own Kool Aid reality and was able to illuminate himself by it. RICHARD BRAUTIGAN If anyone, no matter who, were given the opportunity of choosing from amongst all the nations in the... HERODOTUS Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one c... VIKTOR E. FRANKL The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he c... ARISTOTLE As each situation in life represents a challenge to man and presents a problem for him to solve, the... VIKTOR E. FRANKL He looks uncomfortable, and in this respect the garb is apt. Kevin is uncomfortable; the tiny clothi... LIONEL SHRIVER No man could bring himself to reveal his true character, and, above all, his true limitations as a c... H. L. MENCKEN A true gentleman is one that apologizes anyways, even though he has not offended a lady intentionall... SHANNON L. ALDER Strike an average between what a woman thinks of her husband a month before she marries him and what... H.L. MENCKEN I judge a man by his actions with men, much more than by his declarations Godwards -- When I find hi... ANTHONY TROLLOPE The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than reverence, and to refrain f... ARISTOTLE But the new rebel is a skeptic, and will not entirely trust anything. He has no loyalty; therefore h... G.K. CHESTERTON Everything is true,' he said. 'Everything anybody has ever thought.' 'Will you be all rig... PHILIP K. DICK
More 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 We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect... H.L. MENCKEN If this is so, why should any man bother about moral rules and regulations? Why should any man confo... H.L. MENCKEN There is something poignantly pathetic in the picture of this valiant fighter—this arrogant ja-sag... H.L. MENCKEN It is hard to tell if a man is telling the truth when you know you would lie if you were in his plac... H.L. MENCKEN In the present case it is a little inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of co... H.L. MENCKEN Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this worl... H.L. MENCKEN As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul... H.L. MENCKEN The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man wh... H.L. MENCKEN As I grow older I am unpleasantly impressed by the fact that giving each human being but one life is... H.L. MENCKEN ONE OF the most irrational of all the conventions of modern society is the one to the effect that re... H.L. MENCKEN The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. Power is what ... H.L. MENCKEN Indeed it may be said with some confidence that the average man never really thinks from end to end ... H.L. MENCKEN Penetrating so many secrets, we cease to believe in the unknowable. But there it sits nevertheless, ... H.L. MENCKEN The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. H.L. MENCKEN Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party ... H.L. MENCKEN Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he... H.L. MENCKEN We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine. H.L. MENCKEN Self-respect--the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious. H.L. MENCKEN A philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't there. A theologian i... H.L. MENCKEN It is often argued that religion is valuable because it makes men good, but even if this were true i... H.L. MENCKEN An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it make... H.L. MENCKEN The New Deal began, like the Salvation Army, by promising to save humanity. It ended, again like the... H.L. MENCKEN People constantly speak of "the government" doing this or that, as they might speak of God doing it.... H.L. MENCKEN The worst government is the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. Bu... H.L. MENCKEN All government, in its essence, is organized exploitation, and in virtually all of its existing form... H.L. MENCKEN Government, in its very essence, is opposed to all increase in knowledge. Its tendency is always to... H.L. MENCKEN I believe there is a limit beyond which free speech cannot go, but it's a limit that's very seldom m... H.L. MENCKEN The only kind of freedom that the mob can imagine is freedom to annoy and oppress its betters, and t... H.L. MENCKEN All I ask is equal freedom. When it is denied, as it always is, I take it anyhow. H.L. MENCKEN Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party ... H.L. MENCKEN Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage. H.L. MENCKEN Of government, at least in democratic states, it may be said briefly that it is an agency engaged wh... H.L. MENCKEN Demagogue: one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots. H.L. MENCKEN The idea that the sole aim of punishment is to prevent crime is obviously grounded upon the theory t... H.L. MENCKEN We suffer most when the White House busts with ideas. H.L. MENCKEN To wage a war for a purely moral reason is as absurd as to ravish a woman for a purely moral reason. H.L. MENCKEN War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adr... H.L. MENCKEN The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more li... H.L. MENCKEN It is the fundamental theory of all the more recent American law...that the average citizen is half-... H.L. MENCKEN No one ever heard of the truth being enforced by law. Whenever the secular arm is called in to susta... H.L. MENCKEN The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it's good-by to th... H.L. MENCKEN It is the invariable habit of bureaucracies, at all times and everywhere, to assume...that every cit... 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 A judge is a law student who marks their own examination papers. H.L. MENCKEN Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. H.L. MENCKEN A great literature is chiefly the product of inquiring minds in revolt against the immovable certain... H.L. MENCKEN All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral valu... H.L. MENCKEN It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone- that even the dullest man, in these bri... H.L. MENCKEN Every failure teaches a man something, to wit, that he will probably fail again. H.L. MENCKEN Nature abhors a moron. H.L. MENCKEN No one in this world, so far as I know- and I have researched the records for years, and employed ag... H.L. MENCKEN The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery ... H.L. MENCKEN God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the miserable. They find not only sa... H.L. MENCKEN Philosophy consists very largely of one philosopher arguing that all other philosophers are jackasse... 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 And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Sc... H.L. MENCKEN We must think of human progress, not as of something going on in the race in general, but as somethi... H.L. MENCKEN The psychologists and the metaphysicians wrangle endlessly over the nature of the thinking process i... H.L. MENCKEN Every step in human progress, from the first feeble stirrings in the abyss of time, has been opposed... H.L. MENCKEN The human race is divided into two sharply differentiated and mutually antagonistic classes, almost ... H.L. MENCKEN Any man who inflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood. H.L. MENCKEN There is only one honest impulse at the bottom of Puritanism, and that is the impulse to punish the ... H.L. MENCKEN Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy. H.L. MENCKEN It is only doubt that creates. It is only the minority that counts. H.L. MENCKEN The true function of art is to...edit nature and so make it coherent and lovely. The artist is a so... H.L. MENCKEN To denounce moralizing out of hand is to pronounce a moral judgment. H.L. MENCKEN All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object i... 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 When somebody says it’s not about the money, it’s about the money. H.L. MENCKEN I am suspicious of all the things that the average people believes. H.L. MENCKEN A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin. H.L. MENCKEN The most erroneous assumption is to the effect that the aim of public education is to fill the young... H.L. MENCKEN The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed{and hence the clamorous to be le... H.L. MENCKEN The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom. 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 is the natural tendency of the ignorant to believe what is not true. In order to overcome that te... H.L. MENCKEN For men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to th... 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 What I'd like to read is a scientific review, by a scientific psychologist--if any exists--of 'A Sci... H.L. MENCKEN Nevertheless, it is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man. H.L. MENCKEN Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good. H.L. MENCKEN The trouble with Communism is the Communists, just as the trouble with Christianity is the Christian... H.L. MENCKEN Where is the graveyard of dead gods? What lingering mourner waters their mounds? There was a time wh... H.L. MENCKEN The best teacher is not the one who knows most but the one who is most capable of reducing knowledge... H.L. MENCKEN One horse-laugh is worth ten-thousand syllogisms. H.L. MENCKEN If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some... H.L. MENCKEN The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more li... H.L. MENCKEN The opera…is to music what a bawdy house is to a cathedral. H.L. MENCKEN When I die I shall be content to vanish into nothingness.... No show, however good, could conceivabl... H.L. MENCKEN Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every h... H.L. MENCKEN The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, wit... H.L. MENCKEN I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind — that its modest and gre... H.L. MENCKEN Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking. H.L. MENCKEN He believed that there was need in the world for a class freed from the handicap of law and morality... H.L. MENCKEN When we consider the fact that the spectroscope has enabled us to make a chemical analysis of the su... H.L. MENCKEN In the superman Nietzsche gave the world a conceivable and possible goal for all human effort. But t... H.L. MENCKEN Nietzsche, an infinitely harder and more courageous intellect, was incapable of any such confusion o... H.L. MENCKEN Yet the same thing happens to the notions of morality. They are devised, at the start, as measures o... H.L. MENCKEN Misogynist: A man who hates women as much as women hate one another. H.L. MENCKEN Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy. H.L. MENCKEN The plain fact is that education is itself a form of propaganda - a deliberate scheme to outfit the ... H.L. MENCKEN The essence of science is that it is always willing to abandon a given idea for a better one; the es... 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 Happiness is the china shop; love is the bull. H.L. MENCKEN I know some who are constantly drunk on books as other men are drunk on whiskey. H.L. MENCKEN Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and ha... H.L. MENCKEN No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the record for years, and employed agen... H.L. MENCKEN You never push a noun against a verb without trying to blow up something. H.L. MENCKEN He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered. It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; ... H.L. MENCKEN There are two kinds of Europeans: The smart ones, and those who stayed behind. H.L. MENCKEN the average man does not want to be free. he simply wants to be safe. H.L. MENCKEN Here is something that the psychologists have so far neglected: the love of ugliness for its own sak... H.L. MENCKEN Equality before the law is probably forever unattainable. It is a noble ideal, but it can never be r... H.L. MENCKEN Under democracy one party always devotes it's chief energies to prove that the other party is unfit ... H.L. MENCKEN The average newspaper, especially of the better sort, has the intelligence of a hillbilly evangelist... H.L. MENCKEN A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier. H.L. MENCKEN There is reinforcement in such familiar back-formations as Chinee from Chinese, Portugee from Portug... H.L. MENCKEN American journalism (like the journalism of any other country) is predominantly paltry and worthless... H.L. MENCKEN Government today is growing too strong to be safe. There are no longer any citizens in the world the... H.L. MENCKEN That's the good thing about it. Nothing counts except what's goin' on around you. H.L. DAVIS You're kind and patient and honorable, and yes, maybe those aren't flashy, magical, extraordinary tr... H.L. BURKE A peaceful feeling: A happy harmony or symphony of all of our character pieces working in powerful u... H.L. BALCOMB ART happens every time we live in the spirit of the moment’s greatness" from Cinderella in Focus H.L. BALCOMB If religion is understanding God in the collective stories of life, then spirituality is finding God... H.L. BALCOMB When a mother elevates her communication, she naturally elevates the outcomes of her child's life si... H.L. BALCOMB The smaller the item of gratitude, the purer is the connection to our heart. H.L. BALCOMB Vulnerability along with a sense of humility are the purest forms of strength. H.L. BALCOMB Her smile makes me feel like a million little stars have just found their home in the gravitational ... H.L. BALCOMB We need to be wise consumers of information in an age of artificially created reality, written by pr... H.L. WEGLEY As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner ... HL 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 Most people are unable to write because they are unable to think, and they are unable to think becau... HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN The most valuable of all human possessions, next to a superior and disdainful air, is the reputation... H. L. MENCKEN Science, at bottom, is really anti-intellectual. It always distrusts pure reason, and demands the pr... HENRY LOUIS 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 worst government is the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. B... HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage. HENRY LOUIS 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 A celebrity is one who is known to many persons he is glad he doesn't know. HENRY LOUIS 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