Quotations by Author

H. L. Mencken

School days, I believe, are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence.

A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.

We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.

Honor is simply the morality of superior men.

It is not materialism that is the chief curse of the world, as pastors teach, but idealism. Men get into trouble by taking their visions and hallucinations too seriously.

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.

Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.

Nine times out of ten, in the arts as in life, there is actually no truth to be discovered; there is only error to be exposed.

The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.

The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear - fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety.

Time is the great legalizer, even in the field of morals.

I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant.

Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.

Man is a beautiful machine that works very badly.

The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear - fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety.

For it is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together. Our friends seldom profit us but they make us feel safe. Marriage is a scheme to accomplish exactly that same end.

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.