Clergyman: A ticket speculator outside the gates of Heaven. — H. L. Mencken Agnostic Copy Share Image
Human progress is furthered, not by conformity, but by aberration. — H. L. Mencken Aberration Copy Share Image
A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers. — H. L. Mencken Constitution Copy Share Image
What men value in this world is not rights but privileges. — H. L. Mencken Greatness Copy Share Image
The only way for a reporter to look at a politician is down. — H. L. Mencken Inspirational Copy Share Image
The verdict of a jury is the a priori opinion of that juror who smokes the worst cigars. — H. L. Mencken Cigar Copy Share Image
A Puritan is someone who is desperately afraid that, somewhere, someone might be having a good time. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Metaphysics is almost always an attempt to prove the incredible by an appeal to the unintelligible. — H. L. Mencken Agnostic Copy Share Image
A society made up of individuals who were all capable of original thought would probably be unendurable. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
No matter how happily a woman may be married, it always pleases her to discover that there is a nice man who… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Bachelors know more about women than married men; if they didn't they'd be married too. — H. L. Mencken Bachelors Copy Share Image
For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
There is only one justification for having sinned, and that is to be glad of it. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Why assume so glibly that the God who presumably created the universe is still running it? It is certainly conceivable that He… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Government, like any other organism, refuses to acquiesce in its own extinction. This refusal, of course, involves the resistance to any effort… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
On the one hand, we may tell the truth, regardless of consequences, and on the other hand we may mellow it and… — H. L. Mencken Consequence Copy Share Image
The Old Testament, as everyone who has looked into it is aware, drips with blood; there is, indeed, no more bloody chronicle… — H. L. Mencken Bible Copy Share Image
The editors are committed to nothing save this: to keep common sense as fast as they can, to belabor sham as agreeably… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Suppose two-thirds of the members of the national House of Representatives were dumped into the Washington garbage incinerator tomorrow, what would we… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Happiness is peace after strife, the overcoming of difficulties, the feeling of security and well-being. The only really happy folk are married… — H. L. Mencken Cybersecurity 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
Life without sex might be safer but it would be unbearably dull. It is the sex instinct which makes women seem beautiful,… — H. L. Mencken Beautiful Copy Share Image
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
To the best of my knowledge and belief, the average American newspaper, even of the so-called better sort, is not only quite… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
As for Lindbergh, another eminent servant of science, all he proved by his gaudy flight across the Atlantic was that God takes… — H. L. Mencken Adventure Copy Share Image
Here is one of the fundamental defects of American fiction--perhaps the one character that sets it off sharply from all other known… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
[Thomas Henry] Huxley, I believe, was the greatest Englishman of the Nineteenth Century—perhaps the greatest Englishman of all time. When one thinks… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
I believe there is a limit beyond which free speech cannot go, but it's a limit that's very seldom mentioned. It's the… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The intellectual heritage of the race belongs to the minority. — H. L. Mencken Culture Copy Share Image
![“[Thomas Henry] Huxley, I believe, was the greatest Englishman of the Nineteenth Century—perhaps the greatest Englishman of all time. When one thinks of him, one thinks inevitably of such men as Goethe and Aristotle. For in him there was that rich, incomparable blend of intelligence and character…” quote by H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/371/h-l-mencken-245_all-time_thomas-henry-huxley-i-believe-was-the-gr_3218889.png)
