All H. L. Mencken Quotes
Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
H. L. Mencken
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Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution?
H. L. Mencken
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Platitude: an idea (a) that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b) that is not true.
H. L. Mencken
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An idealist is one who, on noticing that roses smell better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.
H. L. Mencken
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The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.
H. L. Mencken
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Poetry has done enough when it charms, but prose must also convince.
H. L. Mencken
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A national political campaign is better than the best circus ever heard of, with a mass baptism and a couple of hangings thrown in.
H. L. Mencken
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It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.
H. L. Mencken
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I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing.
H. L. Mencken
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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
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The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.
H. L. Mencken in
Wisdom
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Legend: A lie that has attained the dignity of age.
H. L. Mencken in
History
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