The war on privilege will never end. Its next great campaign will be against the privileges of the underprivileged. — H. L. Mencken Campaigns Copy Share Image
All I ask is equal freedom. When it is denied, as it always is, I take it anyhow. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
All the great villainies of history, from the murder of Abel onward, have been perpetrated by sober men, chiefly by Teetotalers. — H. L. Mencken Abel Copy Share Image
The chief contribution of Protestantism to human thought is its massive proof that God is a bore. — H. L. Mencken Contribution Copy Share Image
The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would… — H. L. Mencken Comedy Copy Share Image
The only way that a government can provide for jobs for all citizens is by deciding what every man should do. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
There are some politicians who, if their constituents were cannibals, would promise them missionaries in every pot. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
I know of no human being who has a better time than an eager and energetic young reporter. — H. L. Mencken Energetic Copy Share Image
A large part of altruism, even when it is perfectly honest, is grounded upon the fact that it is uncomfortable to have… — H. L. Mencken Altruism Copy Share Image
Some boys go to college and eventually succeed in getting out. Others go to college and never succeed in getting out. The… — H. L. Mencken Boys Copy Share Image
All great religions, in order to escape absurdity, have to admit a dilution of agnosticism. It is only the savage, whether of… — H. L. Mencken Absurdity Copy Share Image
The idea that the sole aim of punishment is to prevent crime is obviously grounded upon the theory that crime can be… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
War may make a fool of man, but it by no means degrades him; on the contrary, it tends to exalt him,… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Capitalism under democracy has a further advantage: its enemies, even when it is attacked, are scattered and weak, and it is usually… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The critic, to interpret his artist, even to understand his artist, must be able to get into the mind of his artist;… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
What chiefly distinguishes the daily press is its incurable fear of ideas, its constant effort to evade the discussion of fundamentals by… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: it's one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple… — H. L. Mencken Combat Copy Share Image
Liberty is not for these slaves; I do not advocate inflicting it against their conscience. On the contrary, I am strongly in… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
There is no possibility whatsoever of reconciling science and theology, at least in Christendom. Either Jesus arose from the dead or He… — H. L. Mencken Agnostic Copy Share Image
What are the characters that I discern most clearly in the so-called Anglo-Saxon type of man? I may answer at once that… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
I devoured hot-dogs in Baltimore 'way back in 1886, and they were then very far from newfangled...They contained precisely the same rubber,… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Government, in its very essence, is opposed to all increase in knowledge. Its tendency is always towards permanence and against change...[T]he progress… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The most curious social convention of the great age in which we live is the one to the effect that religious opinions… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on 'I… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
If I had my way, any man guilty of golf would be ineligible for any office of trust in the United States. — H. L. Mencken Golf Copy Share Image
The pedant and the priest have always been the most expert of logicians -- and the most diligent disseminators of nonsense and… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
We must be prepared to pay a price for freedom, for no price that is ever asked for it is half the… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal. — H. L. Mencken Animal Copy Share Image
The State doesn't just want you to obey, it wants to make you WANT to obey. — H. L. Mencken Inspirational Copy Share Image
The chief business of the nation, as a nation, is the setting up of heroes, mainly bogus. — H. L. Mencken Bogus Copy Share Image
In every woman's life there is one real and consuming love. But very few women guess which one it is. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth. — H. L. Mencken Depth Copy Share Image
Poetry is a comforting piece of fiction set to more or less lascivious music. — H. L. Mencken Comforting Copy Share Image
Popularity--The capacity for listening sympathetically when men boast of their wives and women complain of their husbands. — H. L. Mencken Boast Copy Share Image
Philosophy, as the modern world knows it, is only intellectual club-swinging. — H. L. Mencken Clubs Copy Share Image
Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in their readiness to doubt. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
In Baltimore, soft crabs are always fried (or broiled) in the altogether, with maybe a small jock-strap of bacon added. — H. L. Mencken Baltimore Copy Share Image
The cosmos is a gigantic flywheel making 10,000 revolutions per minute. Man is a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on it. — H. L. Mencken Astronomy Copy Share Image
Sunday is a day given over by Americans to wishing that the themselves were dead and in Heaven, and that their neighbors… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
![“Government, in its very essence, is opposed to all increase in knowledge. Its tendency is always towards permanence and against change...[T]he progress of humanity, far from being the result of government, has been made entirely without its aid and in the face if its constant and bitter opposition.” quote by H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/f1e/h-l-mencken-245_aids_government-in-its-very-essence-is-oppose_2900850.png)
