« All Ideas Quotes · H. L. Mencken's Page
Ideas Quotes by H. L. Mencken
- The average man does not get pleasure out of an idea because he thinks it is true; he thinks it is true because he gets…
- The idea that leisure is of value in itself is only conditionally true. The average man simply spends his leisure as a dog spends it.…
- My guess is that well over eighty per cent. of the human race goes through life without having a single original thought..
- The whole drift of our law is toward the absolute prohibition of all ideas that diverge in the slightest form from the accepted platitudes, and…
- We suffer most when the White House busts with ideas.
- It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
- The human race is divided into two sharply differentiated and mutually antagonistic classes: a smal l minority that plays with ideas and is capable of…
- The mistake that is made always runs the other way. Because the plain people are able to speak and understand, and even, in many cases,…
- Save among politicians it is no longer necessary for any educated American to profess belief in Thirteenth Century ideas
- The two main ideas that run through all of my writing, whether it be literary criticism or political polemic are these: I am strong in…
- The idea that the sole aim of punishment is to prevent crime is obviously grounded upon the theory that crime can be prevented, which is…
- What chiefly distinguishes the daily press is its incurable fear of ideas, its constant effort to evade the discussion of fundamentals by translating all issues…
- It seems to me that a great university ought to have room in it for men subscribing to every sort of idea that is currently…
- The physical business of writing is unpleasant to me, but the psychic satisfaction of discharging bad ideas in worse English makes me forget it.
- No one ever heard of the truth being enforced by law. When the secular is called in to sustain an idea, whether new or old,…
- Platitude: an idea (a) that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b) that is not true.
- To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true!
- No man ever quite believes in any other man. One may believe in an idea absolutely, but not in a man.
- I know of no American who starts from a higher level of aspiration than the journalist. . . . He plans to be both an…
- The essence of science is that it is always willing to abandon a given idea for a better one; the essence of theology is that…
- Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.
- The kind of man who demands that government enforce his ideas is always the kind whose ideas are idiotic.
- The plain fact is that education is itself a form of propaganda - a deliberate scheme to outfit the pupil, not with the capacity to…
- Democracy is grounded upon so childish a complex of fallacies that they must be protected by a rigid system of taboos, else even halfwits would…
More Ideas Quotes
- I try to push ideas away, and the ones that will not leave me alone are the ones that ultimately end up… — J. J. Abrams
- There is no great genius without a mixture of madness. — Aristotle
- I love the idea of anthropomorphizing machines. I love the idea of taking technology and giving it a personality. — J. J. Abrams
- It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world. — Aristotle
- Never in my wildest dreams did I entertain the idea that I would become a fashion designer. — Giorgio Armani
- I believe that the whole idea of the consumer society is tottering. We've kept ourselves going by producing more and more goods,… — Paul Auster
- In the United States Christmas has become the rape of an idea. — Richard Bach
- We have domesticated God's transcendence. We often learn about God at about the same time as we are learning about Santa Claus;… — Karen Armstrong
- It's tough to be a 15- or 16-year-old athlete competing around the country. There's tension, there's media. I had no idea what… — Lance Armstrong
- There is in every madman a misunderstood genius whose idea, shining in his head, frightened people, and for whom delirium was the… — Antonin Artaud
- A mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no one. — Mary Kay Ash
- But I liked Yeats! That wild Irishman. I really loved his love of language, his flow. His chaotic ideas seemed to me… — Chinua Achebe