When a new source of taxation is found it never means, in practice, that the old source is abandoned. It merely means that the politicians have two ways of milking the taxpayer where they had one before.
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 It is not enough that one surrenders oneself. Surrender is to give oneself up to the original cause ... RAMANA MAHARSHI Unpredictability means what it means. I don't know how you define it. It is what it is. MICHAEL KEATON Life is weird and wonderful like that, is it not. SONYA.E.WILLIAMS When I die it will be game over,... but I know one life is short, to be selfish is not the best deci... DEYTH BANGER Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you... C. JOYBELL C. As the arteries grow hard, the heart grows soft. thanks to Alan Bennett -H. L. Mencken. H. L. MENCKEN It is a lie. ARTHUR MILLER As a means of contrast with the sublime, the grotesque is, in our view, the richest source that natu... VICTOR HUGO The earth seemed to move with me. I found a new source of power and beauty, a source I never knew ex... ROGER BANNISTER A new philosophy generally means in practice the praise of some old vice. G. K. CHESTERTON A new philosophy generally means in practice the praise of some old vice. GILBERT K. CHESTERTON Now that the source code is available as open source, it means that you can use, read and modify the... CHRISTER BERGMAN More important, it's because God is our only true source of life. CRAIG GROESCHEL 'Independent' means one thing to me: It means that regardless of the source of financing, th... ALEXANDER PAYNE It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of v... DAVID ATTENBOROUGH The same Source that gave you the idea, will give you the means to see it through. ALAN COHEN Integrity is not everything, but it is the only thing that matters. JEFFREY FRY Bathsheba loved Troy in the way that only self-reliant women love when they abandon their self-relia... THOMAS HARDY The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiratio... DIETRICH BONHOEFFER It is thus tolerance that is the source of peace, and intolerance that is the source of disorder and... PIERRE BAYLE It is what it is, it is what you make it. JAMES DURBIN Be nobel. Be the light as if you are the source of life. DEBASISH MRIDHA Both [P. T.] Barnum and H. L. Mencken are said to have made the depressing observation that no one e... CARL SAGAN It's not an easy topic because it gets at some fairly delicate issues. The source of some of the smu... WILLIAM RAMSAY I'm fucking the grave, I thought, I'm bringing the dead back to life... CHARLES BUKOWSKI There is a part of this that means we're good stewards of the taxpayer dollar. HANNAH VICK What we're doing is making sure that we have a safe and secure border region from San Diego all ... JANET NAPOLITANO They are keeping the source code, (which) means that their product becomes wrapped in it and encapsu... MARK WHITE One of the nuisances of the ballot is that when the oracle has spoken you never know what it means. LORD SALISBURY It is as reliable a source, group of sources that we've ever seen before. TOM RIDGE The first objection to Darwinism is that it is only a guess and was never anything more. It is calle... WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN We found out in the last couple years that there are a shortage of physicians able to take new Medic... BARBARA GIBSON The king may rule the kingdom, but it's the queen who moves the board. D.M. TIMNEY You know, I don't think my music is important, I don't think it's changing the world, I ... SUFJAN STEVENS Divinity means unfolding and expressing life in new ways. Divinity means radiating peace, bliss and ... AMIT RAY This win means a lot. It means that these kids are resilient. They find different ways to win and th... DON LIPPI Money is a singular thing. It ranks with love as man's greatest source of joy. And with death as his... JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH Being present is being connected to All Things. S. KELLEY HARRELL, M. DIV. New needs need new techniques. And the modern artists have found new ways and new means of making th... JACKSON POLLOCK New needs need new techniques. And the modern artists have found new ways and new means of making th... JACKSON POLLOCK It is a great source of concern when any of these procedures are not being followed. One is always g... BRIAN JENKINS This 'commitment' is poisoned - they do it in a way that worsens the situation for free software: be... CARLO PIANA It is obvious that 'obscenity' is not a term capable of exact legal definition; in the practice of t... BERTRAND RUSSELL The Open Source theorem says that if you give away source code, innovation will occur. Certainly, Un... BILL JOY I am Happy and satisfied with what I am.
10000 will take me wrong, 1000 will go against me, 100 will... NEHA KOTHARI If our mind was an ocean then every now and then we would have the perfect storm happening in it.Gar... GARY F EVANS... Wrong? So you are saying, I'm wrong okay then... It's not possible every time to be right, one ... DEYTH BANGER His life seemed like a deck of cards, and in the midst of all those two’s and three’s someone ha... TEKOA MANNING Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we shou... FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we shou... FRANçOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD It was one of the original, old 'rat-rod' cars where guys would go out and source parts from all kin... GARY WALLACE Millions of people acknowledge today that they do not know the meaning of life. JAMES C. DOBSON Rich men's houses are seldom beautiful, rarely comfortable, and never original. It is a constant sou... MARGOT ASQUITH It has been very controversial whether humans can do egocentric localization, that is, keep their he... NOAM SOBEL (Hussein) means us no good. He means the region no good, ... We always consider him to be a potentia... COLIN POWELL When a man says that he approves something in principal, it means he hasn't the slightest intention ... OTTO VON BISMARCK I call it the New Material Research Laboratory, which means just the opposite - that it is about old... HIROSHI SUGIMOTO Assuming that all ‘unschooled’ people to lack education is akin to assuming that a salary is the... MOKOKOMA MOKHONOANA If the DHS insists, as bureaucracies are apt to do, that open-source must be certified via a sanctio... MARK HALL Though there are some notable exceptions, by and large the persistent ranting of the Warren Commissi... VINCENT BUGLIOSI We have two American flags always: one for the rich and one for the poor. When the rich fly it means... HENRY MILLER Prayer is more than meditation. In meditation, the source of strength is one's self. When one pr... MADAME DE STAEL Prayer is more than meditation. In meditation the source of strength is one's self. When one pra... CHIANG KAI-SHEK I regret that I wasn't more successful with my marriages, but it is what it is. TED TURNER From the corporate perspective, open source is a means, not an end, and if you confuse those you're ... ERIC ALLMAN Goals provide the energy source that powers our lives. One of the best ways we can get the most from... DENIS WAITLEY For the rest of mankind to be with Christ means death, but for Christians it is a means of grace. Ba... DIETRICH BONHOEFFER We found another piece to one of the pieces that had the names on it, so I'm sure that means somethi... RON EDWARDS Prayer is more than meditation. In meditation the source of strength is one's self. When one prays... MADAME CHIANG KAI-SHEK Prayer is more than meditation. In meditation, the source of strength is one's self. When one prays,... MADAME DE STAEL The secret of my success is my hairspray. RICHARD GERE Love is blind, and a deaf-mute too. PATRICK ROTHFUSS Here was one with an air of high nobility such as Aragorn at times revealed, less high perhaps, yet ... J.R.R. TOLKIEN To stand on the brink of what is coming, feeling eager, optimistic anticipation—with no feeli... ASK AND IT IS GIVEN One of the major advantages of using an anaerobic technique is it lets you remove MTBE at the source... DEREK LOVLEY One of the major advantages of using an anaerobic technique is it lets you remove MTBE at the source... DEREK LOVLEY The battle is not physical, it is spiritual and your mind is the battleground. Keep your mind pure a... JEANETTE CORON The characteristic that is new is the commercial open source element. BILL HILF Science is a river with two sources, the practical source and the theoretical source. ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD Time is so important.'so spend time doing something that you love.' make the most of it and Let the ... NAPZ CHERUB PELLAZO Money might be the source of all evil but evil is the source of money. Where to begin? EPHDAN If we have, through grace, an interest in Him who is the Fountain, we may rejoice in him when the st... MATTHEW HENRY As the Chief of the Defence Staff says, you don't defend on the goal line. Defending the interes... BOB AINSWORTH Resveratrol is fascinating stuff. One of the best sources of information about it is the Immortality... TIMOTHY FERRISS I would urge any investor to do as much thorough analysis as they're capable of and that means looki... DAVID KASLOW I would urge any investor to do as much thorough analysis as they're capable of and that means looki... DAVID KASLOW If I'm in the country, my big idea is to do nothing. It means talking, it means cooking with the... CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN M-O-T-H-E-R M is for the million things she gave me, O means only that she's growing old, T... HOWARD JOHNSON I never like it when a celebrity goes on Twitter and says, 'This isn't true!' It is what... HARRY STYLES Our emphasis is, you have to get it at the source, and the source is birds. ANDREA MORGAN God has the capacity to look at the world through two lenses. When God looks at a painful or wicked ... JOHN PIPER As with other individuals and organizations, we too have seen the proliferation of source code licen... JASON MATUSOW We are all God. So, when one feels abandoned by God or Source it's because they are searching or an ... WILIAM CONSTANTINE We prefer to believe that the absence of inverted commas guarantees the originality of a thought, wh... CLIFTON FADIMAN When you're recording to analog tape, it captures performance and you can't necessarily mani... DAVE GROHL It must be recognized that in any culture the source of law is the god of that society. ROUSAS JOHN RUSHDOONY Wake up to a brand new day and realize why you woke up to meet the day! Live to the end of another d... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH You must save what you can of your life; you musn't lose it all simply because you've lost a part. HENRY 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 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