H. L. Mencken ( 10 of 103 )
The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it.
The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it.
Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.
Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.
The human race is divided into two sharply differentiated and mutually antagonistic classes, almost two genera- a small minority that read 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.
Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.
Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.
War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands.
War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands.
The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man read more
The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic.
We must think of human progress, not as of something going on in the race in general, but as something read more
We must think of human progress, not as of something going on in the race in general, but as something going on in a small minority, perpetually beleaguered in a few walled towns. Now and then the horde of barbarians outside breaks through, and we have an armed effort to halt the process. That is, we have a Reformation, a French Revolution, a war for democracy, a Great Awakening. The minority is decimated and driven to cover. But a few survive- and a few are enough to carry on.
The New Deal began, like the Salvation Army, by promising to save humanity. It ended, again like the Salvation Army, read more
The New Deal began, like the Salvation Army, by promising to save humanity. It ended, again like the Salvation Army, by running flop-houses and disturbing the peace.
Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.
Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.
Every failure teaches a man something, to wit, that he will probably fail again.
Every failure teaches a man something, to wit, that he will probably fail again.
