Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Great artists are modest almost as seldom as they are faithful to their wives. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The artist is not a reporter, but a Great Teacher. It is not his business to depict the world as it is,… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Nine times out of ten, in the arts as in life, there is actually no truth to be discovered; there is only… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
When I hear artists or authors making fun of businessmen, I think of a regiment in which the band makes fun of… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
A bad artist almost always tries to conceal his incompetence by whooping up a new formula. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Correct spelling, indeed, is one of the arts that are far more esteemed by schoolma’ams than by practical men, neck-deep in the… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Has the art of politics no apparent utility? Does it appear to be unqualifiedly ratty, raffish, sordid, obscene, and low down, andits… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
What makes philosophy so tedious is not the profundity of philosophers, but their lack of art; they are like physicians who soughtto… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The notion that artists flourish upon adversity and misunderstanding, that they are able to function to the utmost in an atmosphere of… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Mankind has failed miserably in its effort to devise a rational system of government. [...] The art of government is the exclusive… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The movies today are too rich to have any room for genuine artists. They produce a few passable craftsmen, but no artists.… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
It is almost as safe to assume that an artist of any dignity is against his country, i.e., against the environment in… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The art of writing, like the art of love, runs all the way from a kind of routine hard to distinguish from… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Men are the only animals that devote themselves, day in and day out, to making one another unhappy. It is an art… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The truth is . . . that the great artists of the world are never puritans, and seldom ever ordinarily respectable. No… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Such is the art of writing as Dreiser understands it and practices it--an endless piling up of minutiae, an almost ferocious tracking… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The art of politics, under democracy, is simply the art of ringing it. Two branches reveal themselves. There is the art of… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The Puritan, of course, is not entirely devoid of aesthetic feeling. He has a taste for good form; he responds to style;… — 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
A bad artist almost always tries to conceal his incompetence by whooping up a new formula. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share
By profession a biologist, [Thomas Henry Huxley] covered in fact the whole field of the exact sciences, and then bulged through its four fences.… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share
So few men are really worth knowing, that it seems a shameful waste to let an anthropoid prejudice stand in the way of free… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share
Man's objection to love is that it dies hard; woman's, that when it is dead, it stays dead. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share
For it is an absurdity to call a country civilized in which a decent and industrious man, laboriously mastering a trade which is valuble… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share
Women have simple tastes. They get pleasure out of the conversation of children in arms and men in love. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share
The critic, to interpret his artist, even to understand his artist, must be able to get into the mind of his artist; he must… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share
There is, in fact, nothing about religious opinions that entitles them to any more respect than other opinions get. On the contrary, they tend… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share
Liberty ... was a two-headed boon. There was first, the liberty of the people as a whole to determine the forms of their own… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share
To the extent that I am genuinely educated, I am suspicious of all the things that the average citizen believes and the average pedagogue… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share
Philosophy first constructs a scheme of happiness and then tries to fit the world to it. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share
For it is the natural tendency of the ignorant to believe what is not true. In order to overcome that tendency it is not… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share
![“[Art is] an attempt to escape from life.” quote by H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bf5/h-l-mencken-245_art_art-is-an-attempt-to-escape-from-life-35_351850.png)
![“Mankind has failed miserably in its effort to devise a rational system of government. [...] The art of government is the exclusive possession of quacks and frauds. It has been so since the earliest days, and it will probably remain so until the end of time.” quote by H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a3e/h-l-mencken-245_art_mankind-has-failed-miserably-in-its-effo_1593851.jpg)
