Self-respect: the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious. — H. L. Mencken Respect Copy Share Image
After all is said and done, a hell lot of a lot more is said than done. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The most common of all follies is to believe in the palpably untrue. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The first kiss is stolen by the man; the last is begged by the woman. — H. L. Mencken First kiss Copy Share Image
Imagine the Creator as a low comedian, and at once the world becomes explicable. — H. L. Mencken Atheism Copy Share Image
The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The chief knowledge that's man on from reading books is the knowledge that very few of them are worth reading. — H. L. Mencken Book Copy Share Image
Whenever A annoys or injures B on the pretense of saving or improving X, A is a scoundrel. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Platitude: an idea (a) that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b) that is not true. — H. L. Mencken Idea Copy Share Image
The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots. — H. L. Mencken Cynical Copy Share Image
What is the professor's function? To pass on to numskulls a body of so-called knowledge that is fragmentary, unimportant, and largely untrue. — H. L. Mencken Body Copy Share Image
We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine. — H. L. Mencken Human Copy Share Image
The chief difference between free capitalism and State socialism seems to be this: that under the former a man pursues his own… — H. L. Mencken Advantage 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 Art 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
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
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
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
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
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
The fact is that the average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth.… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
All the great enterprises of the world are run by a few smart men: their aides and associates run down by rapid… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The man who boasts that he habitually tells the truth is simply a man with no respect for it. It is not… — H. L. Mencken Agony Copy Share Image
The whole drift of our law is toward the absolute prohibition of all ideas that diverge in the slightest form from the… — H. L. Mencken Absolutes Copy Share Image
I well recall my horror when I heard for the first time, of a journalist who had laid in a pair of… — H. L. Mencken Bicycle Copy Share Image
To large numbers of American citizens life in certain parts of the country becomes intolerably hazardous. They may be seized on any… — H. L. Mencken American citizens Copy Share Image
I am never much interested in the effects of what I write…I seldom read with any attention the reviews of my...books. Two… — H. L. Mencken Attention Copy Share Image
“The average newspaper, especially of the better sort, has the intelligence of a hillbilly evangelist, the courage of a rat, the fairness… — H. L. Mencken High school Copy Share Image
There's no underestimating the intelligence of the American public. — H. L. Mencken American public Copy Share Image
Los Angeles: nineteen suburbs in search of a metropolis. — H. L. Mencken Los angeles Copy Share Image
![“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)
