« All Very Quotes · H. L. Mencken's Page
Very Quotes by H. L. Mencken
- The chief knowledge that a man gets from reading books is the knowledge that very few of them are worth reading.
- Only to often on meeting scientific men, even those of genuine distiction, one finds that they are dull fellows and very stupid. They know one…
- People constantly speak of 'the government' doing this or that, as they might speak of God doing it. But the government is really nothing but…
- The Jews could be put down very plausibly as the most unpleasant race ever heard of. As commonly encountered they lack any of the qualities…
- The final test of truth is ridicule. Very few dogmas have ever faced it and survived.
- It seems to me that you are better off, as a writer and as an American, in a small town than you'd be in New…
- It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all…
- Man is a beautiful machine that works very badly. He is like a watch of which the most that can be said is that its…
- 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 point where free…
- Government, in its very essence, is opposed to all increase in knowledge. Its tendency is always towards permanence and against change...[T]he progress of humanity, far…
- Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop.
- Man is a beautiful machine that works very badly.
- The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there…
- Philosophy consists very largely of one philosopher arguing that all others are jackasses. He usually proves it, and I should add that he also usually…
- School days, I believe, are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence. They are full of dull, unintelligible tasks, new and unpleasant ordinances,…
- The argument that capital punishment degrades the state is moonshine, for if that were true then it would degrade the state to send men to…
- Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop. --H. L. Mencken
More Very Quotes
- I don't think about my previous success. I'm happy that the work I've done has been very successful. — Aaliyah
- By its very nature the beautiful is isolated from everything else. From beauty no road leads to reality. — Hannah Arendt
- The earth is the very quintessence of the human condition. — Hannah Arendt
- No cause is left but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the beginning of our history has… — Hannah Arendt
- Where all are guilty, no one is; confessions of collective guilt are the best possible safeguard against the discovery of culprits, and… — Hannah Arendt
- It is in the very nature of things human that every act that has once made its appearance and has been recorded… — Hannah Arendt
- In Italy the censor is very old and there are many judges and psychiatrists who analyse you. — Dario Argento
- Actually I am very glad that people can buy Armani - even if it's a fake. I like the fact that I'm… — Giorgio Armani
- The most deeply personal of my works are the non-fiction works, the autobiographical works, because there, I'm talking about myself very directly. — Paul Auster
- Even in New York, there are a lot of very attractive girls pedaling around. That just happens to be one of the… — Paul Auster
- I guess I wanted to leave America for awhile. It wasn't that I wanted to become an expatriate, or just never come… — Paul Auster
- I have a very sharp tongue, I'm very impatient, and it's a lifelong struggle. — Karen Armstrong