H. L. Mencken Quotes

The objection of the scandalmonger is not that she tells of racy doings, but that she pretends to be indignant more

The objection of the scandalmonger is not that she tells of racy doings, but that she pretends to be indignant about them.

For men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.

For men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.

Progress is the process whereby the human race is getting rid of whiskers, the veriform appendix and God.

Progress is the process whereby the human race is getting rid of whiskers, the veriform appendix and God.

The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the more

The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.

No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.

No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.

It doesn't take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause.

It doesn't take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause.

The human race is divided into two sharply differentiated and mutually antagonistic classes, almost two genera- a small minority that more

The human race is divided into two sharply differentiated and mutually antagonistic classes, almost two genera- a small minority that plays with ideas and is capable of taking them in, and a vast majority that finds them painful, and is thus arrayed against them, and against all who have traffic with them. The intellectual heritage of the race belongs to the minority, and to the minority only. The majority has no more to do with it than it has to do with ecclesiastic politics on Mars. In so far as that heritage is apprehended, it is viewed with enmity. But in the main it is not apprehended at all.

God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the miserable. They find not only sanctuary in His arms, more

God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the miserable. They find not only sanctuary in His arms, but also a kind of superiority, soothing to their macerated egos; He will set the above their betters.

It is impossible to believe that the same God who permitted His own son to die a bachelor regards celibacy more

It is impossible to believe that the same God who permitted His own son to die a bachelor regards celibacy as an actual sin.

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.