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Metaphysics is almost always an attempt to prove the incredible by an appeal to the unintelligible


Henry Louis Mencken

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HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN A large part of altruism, even when it is perfectly honest, is grounded upon the fact that it is unc...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN Many an American Congressman comes to Washington from a district attorney's office: you may be sure ...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN What restrains us from killing is partly fear of punishment, partly moral scruple, and partly what m...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN Do not overestimate the decency of the human race
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN Man is always looking for someone to boast to; woman is always looking for a shoulder to put her hea...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN When I mount the scaffold at last these will be my farewell words to the sheriff: Say what you will ...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN School teachers, taking them by and large, are probably the most ignorant and stupid class of men in...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN The only kind of freedom that the mob can imagine is freedom to annoy and oppress its betters, and t...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN And out of each (schoolhouse) is vomited the standard product of the New Pedagogy - an endless proce...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN Every great wave of popular passion that rolls up on the prairies is dashed to spray when it strikes...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN I never smoked a cigarette until I was nine.
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN The lunatic fringe wags the underdog
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN Creator: a comedian whose audience is afraid to laugh
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN The formula of the argument is simple and familiar: to dispose of a problem all that is necessary is...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN We must respect the other fellow's religion,but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect ...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN I hate all sports as rabidly as a person who likes sports hates common sense.
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many in...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN To expect defeat is nine-tenths of defeat itself.
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN It is a peculiarity of the American mind that it regards any excursion into the truth as an adventur...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN It is more blessed to give than receive; for example, wedding presents
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN Painting is the art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN Christian theology is not only opposed to the scientific spirit; it is opposed to every other form o...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN A sense of humor always withers in the presence of the messianic delusion, like justice and truth in...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration - courage, clear thinking, hone...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN Love is like war; easy to begin but very hard to stop
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN Theology is the effort to explain the unknowable in terms of the not worth knowing.
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN School days, I believe, are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence.
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN What men value in this world is not rights but privileges
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind - that its modest and great...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false face for the urge to rule it.
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN