FastSaying

The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God's children, but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil.


H. L. Mencken

  Email Quote to Friends   Link to Quote   Create Short URL  Publish Text About This Quote   Share on Facebook, Twitter, and more
  See Recommended Quotes For You

Related

The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God's children, but that as s...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN Nothing is ever as good or as bad as it appears to be.
JEFFREY FRY That's SHIT!

How do you remove it?
You just put it inside the trash, easy as that.
DEYTH BANGER This is too much reality for a Friday.
AS GOOD AS IT GETS As the arteries grow hard, the heart grows soft. -H. L. Mencken.
H. L. MENCKEN Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. -H. L. Mencken.
H. L. MENCKEN Horror as for me is the best choice, you can gain a lot of. I like to be afraid like to see this shi...
DEYTH BANGER Only fools wait, and only tools bait.
CRE There are approximately two trillion cells in the human body. You are never alone, there are always ...
DWIGHT W. HAYES In Cloud computing the difference between a dark cloud and a cloud with a silver lining, is the part...
RAJAT MOHAN When he entered the anteroom, two women looked up at him. One was Miss Robertson, the governor's sec...
GEORGE P. ELLIOTT As the arteries grow hard, the heart grows soft. thanks to Alan Bennett -H. L. Mencken.
H. L. MENCKEN Man, as long as he lives, is immortal. One minute before his death he shall be immortal. But one min...
ELIE WIESEL A lot of teenagers write to me and say "I want to write a book. I want to get published." And those ...
MAUREEN JOHNSON God is everywhere but He is most manifest in man. So serve man as God. That is as good as worshippin...
RAMAKRISHNA All I'm saying is, is God the god who we look to for comfort during tragedies? Is he the god who...
BENJAMIN WATSON You mean old books?"

"Stories written before space travel but about space travel."
<...
PHILIP K. DICK As far as love is concerned, possession, power, fusion and disenchantment are the Four Horsemen of t...
ZYGMUNT BAUMAN Death is not scary enough and not so sweet life of the human foot leaves gentility.
IMAM ALI (AS) I believe that there is a Matrix and... to be more accurate I am in the Pornography Matrix.
DEYTH BANGER There cannot be a personal God without a pessimistic religion. As soon as there is a personal God he...
CYRIL CONNOLLY Would you want you as a friend?
PETER STROPLE It should not be surprised by seeing in our weird world that the people for enjoying own bread can a...
ANUJ SOMANY Everyone out there is using you for their entertainment and what you mostly need is to be entertainm...
SUPERNA BATHEJA So long as a man imagines that he cannot do this or that, so long as he is determined not to do it; ...
BARUCH SPINOZA No man is beaten until his hope is annihilated, his confidence gone, As long as a man faces life hop...
ORISON SWETT MARDEN No man is beaten until his hope is annihilated, his confidence gone. As long as a man faces life hop...
ORISON SWETT MARDEN Mr. Idris Elba is amazing! He happens to be British, but what's funny about him is that when he&...
TASHA SMITH He's not anybody's clone. He's Ken Griffey, Jr. As long as he continues to remind himsel...
CHILI DAVIS An Innocent Man Is Never Frightened By the Truth; But A Guilty Man Will Try To Hide It As Long As He...
PATTY RASE HOPSON I don't care what a man is as long as he treats me right. He can be a gambler, a hustler, someon...
JOE NAMATH Whenever man decides that he is competent to do as he pleases he is soon enjoying Hell on earth, par...
BERNARD IDDINGS BELL The only difference between a man and god is that man knows nothing but pretends as if he knows ever...
ANURAAG Spector is a good guy, but he's a nut. Ha, ha, ha! You know, I love him, but he's unpredicta...
IKE TURNER Al Roker is one of the most sensible people you'll ever meet. He's raised two daughters and ...
TAMRON HALL Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he could be, and he will become wh...
RALPH WALDO EMERSON It is of no consequence of what parents a man is born, as long as he be a man of merit.
HORACE Retire? I don't know what that word means. As long as a man is able to work and he's product...
RED ADAIR Man's sin is in his failure to live what he is. Being the master of the earth, man forgets that ...
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL God is not some lesser employee, as many try to make Him out to be: rather He is the ultimate Treasu...
CRISS JAMI Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and
he wi...
STEPHEN R. COVEY A man is not old as long as he is seeking something.
JEAN ROSTAND We should not say that one man's hour is worth another man's hour, but rather that one man d...
KARL MARX He is not truly patient who will only suffer as far as seems right to him and from whom he pleases. ...
THOMAS à KEMPIS And if you can’t shape your life the way you want, at least try as much as you can not to degrade ...
CONSTANTINOS P. CAVAFIS The devil is not as black as he is painted.
DANTE ALIGHIERI Sex without love is a meaningless experience, but as far as meaningless experiences go its pretty da...
WOODY ALLEN Lord Byron is only great as a poet; as soon as he reflects he is a child.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE Life is not a game. Still, in this life, we choose the games we live to play.
J.R. RIM I was clearly fascinated by him, but had the strange sense that he was equally fascinated by me. As ...
JACOB WREN A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN It is very good for a man to talk about what he does not understand; as long as he understands that ...
GILBERT KEITH CHESTERTON He that is busy is tempted by but one devil; he that is idle, by a legion.
THOMAS FULLER It is a woman's business to get married as soon as possible, and a man's to keep unmarried as long a...
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW The deceit, the lie of the devil consists of this, that he wishes to make man believe that he can li...
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER A man is as great as the dreams he dreams, As great as the love he bears; As great as the values he...
C.E. FLYNN God as 'He,' as a patriarchal thing, is offensive to me. It's standard fare for America,...
PATTY GRIFFIN So long as a man is angry he cannot be in the right
CHINESE PROVERBS As far as Saddam Hussein being a great military strategist, he is neither a strategist, nor is he sc...
NORMAN SCHWARZKOPF If a man is alive, there is always danger that he may die, though the danger must be allowed to be l...
HENRY DAVID THOREAU If you treat a man as he is, he will remain as he is; if you treat him as he ought to be and could b...
GOETHE A person soon forgets about God as soon as he recovers from sickness.
VIKRANT PARSAI A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.
ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER As soon as a regular guy like Bill Clinton becomes the president, he wears a mantle of greatness. He...
LYDIA MILLET As far as we are concerned, we Syria have not changed.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD As far as the style, I was fascinated by surrealism.
MARK MOTHERSBAUGH As far as I know, I have no pride of opinion.
ALBERT J. NOCK Nothing trumps honesty, as far as I'm concerned.
DAVID KOECHNER Man's natural character is to imitate; that of the sensitive man is to resemble as closely as po...
MARQUIS DE SADE I've succeeded as far as I'm concerned - I don't feel that I have any cliffs I could fal...
SHANIA TWAIN 35. God is entitled to a portion of our income—not because He needs it but because we need to give...
JAMES C. DOBSON God cannot be referred to as 'good,' 'better,' or 'best' because He is above all things. If a man sa...
ANDREW DAVIDSON His life seemed like a deck of cards, and in the midst of all those two’s and three’s someone ha...
TEKOA MANNING Danny is as philosophical as ever. Unfortunately, whenever he gets an injury he seems to pick up a s...
CHRIS HAMILTON He is just a guy who would never do that sort of thing intentionally. He is as honest as the day is ...
AARON WARD He comes to London and gets a job in a nightclub, a gay club, where he's known as Straight Dave ...
NEIL TENNANT As long as he is playing at that level, he is our starting center.
DWANE CASEY I've always told Will, 'You can do whatever you want as long as you can look at yourself in ...
JADA PINKETT SMITH Once the good man was dead, one wore his hat and another his sword as he had worn them, a third had ...
G. C. (GEORG CHRISTOPH) LICHTENBERG Rather than say he's an atheist, a friend of mine says, 'I'm a tooth fairy agnostic,'...
RICHARD DAWKINS I wouldn't trust any man as far as you can throw a piano.
ETHEL MERMAN A Religion of Evolution: that, when all is said and done, is what Man needs ever more explicitly if ...
PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN A murderer is regarded by the conventional world as something almost monstrous, but a murderer to hi...
GRAHAM GREENE Divinity is great enough to be divine; it is great enough to call itself divine. But as humanity gro...
G.K. CHESTERTON A man is as old as he feels himself to be.
ENGLISH PROVERB So long as man is protected by madness - he functions - and flourishes.
EMILE M. CIORAN Treat a man as he is, he will remain so. Treat a man the way he can be and ought to be, and he will ...
GOETHE The quality of a conqueror is to be judged as much by what he spears as by what he spares
AGONA APELL Ron Howard is as good a person as you could want to work with on film. He never lost his cool. He...
CHRISTINE BARANSKI Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you...
C. JOYBELL C. I don't think Luke Cage as a superhero is something that has changed dramatically from the '...
MIKE COLTER It seems, in fact, as though the second half of a man's life is made up of nothing, but the habi...
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY As a man sow, shall he reap. and I know that talk is cheap. But the heat of the battle is as sweet a...
BOB MARLEY The only chance for victory over the brainwash is the right of every man to have his ideas judged on...
EZRA POUND God created the flirt as soon as he made the fool.
VICTOR HUGO I'm disappointed that he will not be able to compete for a job on the starting staff. The main thing...
FRANK ROBINSON For one man who thanks God that he is not as other men there are a thousand to offer thanks that the...
JOHN DEWEY Feast of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Teacher, Martyr, 1945 The deceit, the lie of the devil consists of t...
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.
C.S. LEWIS Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.
C. S. LEWIS

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 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