H. L. Mencken ( 10 of 103 )
No married man is genuinely happy if he has to drink worse whisky than he used to drink when he read more
No married man is genuinely happy if he has to drink worse whisky than he used to drink when he was single.
To wage a war for a purely moral reason is as absurd as to ravish a woman for a purely read more
To wage a war for a purely moral reason is as absurd as to ravish a woman for a purely moral reason.
The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in
which it is overestimated.
The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in
which it is overestimated.
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and hence clamorous to be led to safety] read more
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and hence clamorous to be led to safety] by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
It is impossible to believe that the same God who permitted His own son to die a bachelor regards celibacy read 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.
I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it read more
I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone.
Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back
to the pleasant fact that there are read more
Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back
to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.
Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage.
Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage.
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.
And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are read more
And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are maintained in order to bring this uniformity up to the highest possible point. A school is a hopper into which children are heaved while they are still young and tender; therein they are pressed into certain standard shapes and covered from head to heels with official rubber-stamps.
