Citizenship in New York is now worth no more than citizenship in Arkansas, for it is open to any applicant from the… — H. L. Mencken Arkansas Copy Share Image
Those tragic comedians, the Chamber of Commerce red hunters, the Women's Christian Temperance Union smellers, the censors of books, the Klan regulators,… — H. L. Mencken America Copy Share Image
A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin or when he sees silver he looks… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
What I admire most in any man is a serene spirit, a steady freedom from moral indignation, and all-embracing tolerance--in brief,what is… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
It is Hell, of course, that makes priests powerful, not Heaven, for after thousands of years of so-called civilization fear remains the… — H. L. Mencken Civilization Copy Share Image
I think the Negro people should feel secure enough by now to face a reasonable ridicule without terror. I am unalterably opposed… — H. L. Mencken Communication Copy Share Image
Law and its instrument, government, are necessary to the peace and safety of all of us, but all of us, unless we… — H. L. Mencken Government Copy Share Image
All government is, in its essence, organized exploitation, and in virtually all of its existing forms it is the implacable enemy of… — H. L. Mencken Enemy Copy Share Image
“College football would be much more interesting if the faculty played instead of the students, and even more interesting if the trustees… — H. L. Mencken College football Copy Share Image
Whenever I write anything that sets up controversy its meaning is distorted almost instantly. Even the editorial writers of newspapers seem to… — H. L. Mencken Controversy Copy Share Image
One yearns unspeakably for a composer who gives out his pair of honest themes, and then develops them unashamed, and then hangs… — H. L. Mencken Composer Copy Share Image
There are men so philosophical that they can see humor in their own toothaches. But there has never lived a man so… — H. L. Mencken Humor Copy Share Image
Have you ever watched a crab on the shore crawling backward in search of the Atlantic Ocean, and missing? That's the way… — H. L. Mencken Atlantic ocean Copy Share Image
The average woman must inevitably view her actual husband with a certain disdain; he is anything but her ideal. In consequence, she… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
If I had my way, any man guilty of golf would be barred from any public office in the United States and… — H. L. Mencken Argentina Copy Share Image
The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
“When a new source of taxation is found it never means, in practice, that an old source is abandoned. It merely means… — H. L. Mencken Politics Copy Share Image
If experience teaches us anything at all, it teaches us this: that a good politician, under democracy, is quite as unthinkable as… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
All successful newpapers are ceaselessly querulous and bellicose. They never defend anyone or anything if they can help it; if the job… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Pedagogues: More than any other class of blind leaders of the blind they are responsible for the degrading standardization which now afflicts… — H. L. Mencken American people Copy Share Image
The most popular man under a democracy is not the most democratic man, but the most despotic man. The common folk delight… — H. L. Mencken Boss Copy Share Image
It is, indeed, one of the capital tragedies of youth-and youth is the time of real tragedy-that the young are thrown mainly… — H. L. Mencken Adults Copy Share Image
The way to deal with superstition is not to be polite to it, but to tackle it with all arms, and so… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Who will argue that 98.6 Farenheit is the right temperature for man? As for me, I decline to do it. It may… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The Catholic clergy seldom bother to make their arguments plausible; it is plain that they have little respect for human intelligence, and… — H. L. Mencken Argument Copy Share Image
The physical business of writing is unpleasant to me, but the psychic satisfaction of discharging bad ideas in worse English makes me… — H. L. Mencken Bad idea Copy Share Image
