A gentlemen is one who never strikes a woman without provocation. — H. L. Mencken Gentleman Copy Share Image
The great achievement of liberal Protestantism was to make God boring. — H. L. Mencken Achievement Copy Share Image
Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time. — H. L. Mencken Character Copy Share Image
The difference between the smartest dog and the stupidest man - say a Tennessee Holy Roller - is really very small. — H. L. Mencken Animal Copy Share Image
The only way to success in American public life lies in flattering and kowtowing to the mob — H. L. Mencken Fame Copy Share Image
Politics, as hopeful men practise it in the world, consists mainly of the delusion that a change in form is a change… — H. L. Mencken Change Copy Share Image
To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that… — H. L. Mencken Ideas Copy Share Image
The ideal way to get rid of any infectious disease would be to shoot instantly every person who comes down with it. — H. L. Mencken Disease Copy Share Image
I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
In human history a moral victory is always a disaster, for it debauches and degrades both the victor and the vanquished. — H. L. Mencken Character Copy Share Image
It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf. — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
When a private citizen is robbed, a worthy man is deprived of the fruits of his industry and thrift; when the government… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Capital punishment has probably been responsible for a good deal of human progress. The overwhelming majority of those executed were of the… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
No democratic delusion is more fatuous than that which holds that all men are capable of reason, and hence susceptible to conversion… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
I am, in fact, the complete anti-Messiah, and detest converts almost as much as I detest missionaries. My writings, such as they… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The older I grow the less I esteem mere ideas. In politics, particularly, they are transient and unimportant. . . . There… — H. L. Mencken Character Copy Share Image
The book of Genesis, a farrago of nonsense so wholly absurd that even Sunday-school scholars have to be threatened with Hell to… — H. L. Mencken Absurd Copy Share Image
The dying man doesn't struggle much and he isn't much afraid. As his alkalies give out he succumbs to a blest stupidity.… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech - alike for the humblest man and the mightiest, and in the… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
It is the invariable habit of bureaucracies, at all times and everywhere, to assume...that every citizen is a criminal. Their one apparent… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The notion that science does not concern itself with first causes - that it leaves the field to theology or metaphysics, and… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Hygiene is the corruption of medicine by morality. It is impossible to find a hygienist who does not debase his theory of… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
Some time ago a publisher told me that there are four kinds of books that seldom, if ever, lose money in the… — H. L. Mencken Book Copy Share Image
The human race is divided into two sharply differentiated and mutually antagonistic classes: a smal l minority that plays with ideas and… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
All of the great patriots now engaged in edging and squirming their way toward the Presidency of the Republic run true to… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The highfalutin aims of democracy, whether real or imaginary, are always assumed to be identical with its achievements. This, of course, is… — H. L. Mencken Achievement Copy Share Image
I'm ombibulous. I drink every known alcoholic drink and enjoy them all. — H. L. Mencken Alcoholic drinks Copy Share Image
As long as you represent me as praising alcohol I shall not complain, — H. L. Mencken Alcohol Copy Share Image
