The martini: the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet. — H. L. Mencken Drinking Copy Share Image
For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong. — H. L. Mencken Complex problems Copy Share Image
A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar. — H. L. Mencken Honest Copy Share Image
Watching two women kiss is like watching two prizefighters shake hands. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Deep within the heart of every evangelist lies the wreck of a car salesman. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
There is always a sheet of paper. There is always a pen. There is always a way out. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
It is not the drinker, but the man who has just stopped drinking, who thinks the world is going to the dogs. — H. L. Mencken Beer Copy Share Image
I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing. — H. L. Mencken Amusing Copy Share Image
A prohibitionist is the sort of man one couldn't care to drink with, even if he drank. — H. L. Mencken Care Copy Share Image
The objection of the scandalmonger is not that she tells of racy doings, but that she pretends to be indignant about them. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Those who can't teach - administrate. Those who can't administrate - go into politics. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The best teacher of children, in brief, is one who is essentially childlike. — H. L. Mencken Best teacher Copy Share Image
Why writers write I do not know. As well ask why a hen lays an egg or why a cow stands patiently… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The idea that leisure is of value in itself is only conditionally true. The average man simply spends his leisure as a… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
During many a single week, I daresay, more money is spent in New York upon useless and evil things than would suffice… — H. L. Mencken Denmark Copy Share Image
I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood,… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
A professional politician is a professionally dishonorable man. In order to get anywhere near high office he has to make so many… — H. L. Mencken Compromise Copy Share Image
One of the laudable by-products of the Freudian quackery is the discovery that lying, in most cases, is involuntary and inevitable--that the… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Goverment is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
I believe that it should be perfectly lawful to print even things that outrage the pruderies and prejudices of the general, so… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
It is difficult to believe that even idiots ever succumbed to such transparent contradictions, to such gaudy processions of mere counter-words, to… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
What reason is there for believing that a high death rate, in itself, is undesirable? To my knowledge none whatever. The plain… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
People constantly speak of 'the government' doing this or that, as they might speak of God doing it. But the government is… — H. L. Mencken Better man Copy Share Image
It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone - that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows more… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
When I think of anything properly describable as a beautiful idea, it is always in the form of music. I have written… — H. L. Mencken Beautiful Copy Share Image
Syllogisms а la mode - If you are against labor racketeers, then you are against the working man. If you are against… — H. L. Mencken Cancer Copy Share Image
A mood of constructive criticism being upon me, I propose forthwith that the method of choosing legislators now prevailing in the United… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
[The] erroneous assumption is to the effect that the aim of public education is to fill the young of the species with… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Every complex problem has a simple solution that doesn't work. — H. L. Mencken Complex problems Copy Share Image
The Public ... demands certainties ... But there are not certainties — H. L. Mencken Certainties Copy Share Image
To denounce moralizing out of hand is to pronounce a moral judgment. — H. L. Mencken Character Copy Share Image
![“[The] erroneous assumption is to the effect that the aim of public education is to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence, and so make them fit to discharge the duties of citizenship in an enlightened and independent manner. Nothing could be further from the…” quote by H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f10/h-l-mencken-245_aim_the-erroneous-assumption-is-to-the-effec_1758141.jpg)
