The Public ... demands certainties ... But there are not certainties — H. L. Mencken Certainties Copy Share Image
Every complex problem has a simple solution that doesn't work. — H. L. Mencken Complex problems Copy Share Image
Watching two women kiss is like watching two prizefighters shake hands. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
What fetched me instantly (and thousands of other newcomers with me) was the subtle but unmistakable sense of escape from the United… — H. L. Mencken Newcomers Copy Share Image
[A formula for answering controversial letters -- without even reading the letters:] Dear Sir (or Madame): You may be right. — H. L. Mencken Controversial Copy Share Image
No normal man ever fell in love after thirty when the kidneys begin to disintegrate. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. — H. L. Mencken Common people Copy Share Image
For me to go into politics would be like sending a virgin into a house of ill-repute. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
For the habitual truth-teller and truth-seeker, indeed, the whole world has very little liking. He is always unpopular. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
It is not materialism that is the chief curse of the world, as pastors teach, but idealism. Men get into trouble by… — H. L. Mencken Curse Copy Share Image
Love, to the inferior man, remains almost wholly a physical matter. The heroine he most admires is the one who offers the… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The wholly manly man lacks the wit necessary to give objective form to his soaring and secret dreams, and the wholly womanly… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The Book of Revelation has all the authority, in these theological uplands, of military orders in time of war. The people turn… — H. L. Mencken Atheism Copy Share Image
I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The fundamental trouble with marriage is that it shakes a man's confidence in himself, and so greatly diminishes his general competence and… — H. L. Mencken Battle Copy Share Image
On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White… — H. L. Mencken Day Copy Share Image
Women in general seem to me to be appreciably more intelligent than men. A great many of them suffer in silence from… — H. L. Mencken Great man Copy Share Image
I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs. There is in every living creature an… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
I never listen to debates. They are dreadful things indeed. The plain truth is that I am not a fair man, and… — H. L. Mencken Aviation Copy Share Image
All the political seers and sorcerers seem to be agreed that the coming Presidential campaign will be full of bitterness, and that… — H. L. Mencken Argument Copy Share Image
Liberty ... was a two-headed boon. There was first, the liberty of the people as a whole to determine the forms of… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The aim of poetry, it appears, is to fill the mind with lofty thoughts--not to give it joy, but to give it… — H. L. Mencken Age Copy Share Image
Science is unflinchingly deterministic, and it has begun to force its determinism into morals. On some shining tomorrow a psychoanalyst may be… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Man is never honestly the fatalist, nor even the stoic. He fights his fate, often desperately. He is forever entering bold exceptions… — H. L. Mencken Beauty Copy Share Image
The federal [bank deposit] insurance scheme has worked up to now simply and solely because there have been very few bank failures.… — H. L. Mencken Banking Copy Share Image
To denounce moralizing out of hand is to pronounce a moral judgment. — H. L. Mencken Character Copy Share Image
The only way for a reporter to look at a politician is down. — H. L. Mencken Inspirational Copy Share Image
![“[A formula for answering controversial letters -- without even reading the letters:] Dear Sir (or Madame): You may be right.” quote by H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/f18/h-l-mencken-245_controversial_a-formula-for-answering-controversial-le_2795484.jpg)
![“The federal [bank deposit] insurance scheme has worked up to now simply and solely because there have been very few bank failures. The next time we have a pestilence of them it will come to grief quickly enough, and if the good banks escape ruin with the bad ones it will be only because the…” quote by H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/2db/h-l-mencken-245_banking_the-federal-bank-deposit-insurance-schem_1553577.png)
