H. L. Mencken ( 10 of 103 )
There is only one honest impulse at the bottom of Puritanism, and that is the impulse to punish the man read more
There is only one honest impulse at the bottom of Puritanism, and that is the impulse to punish the man with a superior capacity for happiness.
On one issue at least, men and women agree: they both distrust women.
On one issue at least, men and women agree: they both distrust women.
It is the invariable habit of bureaucracies, at all times and everywhere, to assume...that every citizen is a criminal. Their read more
It is the invariable habit of bureaucracies, at all times and everywhere, to assume...that every citizen is a criminal. Their one apparent purpose, pursued with a relentless and furious diligence, is to convert the assumption into a fact. They hunt endlessly for proofs, and, when proofs are lacking, for mere suspicions. The moment they become aware of a definite citizen, John Doe, seeking what is his right under the law, they begin searching feverishly for an excuse for withholding it from him.
To denounce moralizing out of hand is to pronounce a moral judgment.
To denounce moralizing out of hand is to pronounce a moral judgment.
Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
Every step in human progress, from the first feeble stirrings in the abyss of time, has been opposed by the read more
Every step in human progress, from the first feeble stirrings in the abyss of time, has been opposed by the great majority of men. Every valuable thing that has been added to the store of man's possessions has been derided by them when it was new, and destroyed by them when they had the power. They have fought every new truth ever heard of, and they have killed every truth-seeker who got into their hands.
Strike an average between what a woman thinks of her husband a month before she marries him and what she read more
Strike an average between what a woman thinks of her husband a month before she marries him and what she thinks of him a year afterward, and you will have the truth about him. -H.L. Mencken.
Temptation is a woman's weapon and man's excuse.
Temptation is a woman's weapon and man's excuse.
I believe there is a limit beyond which free speech cannot go, but it's a limit that's very seldom mentioned. read more
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 speech begins to collide with the right to privacy. I don't think there are any other conditions to free speech. I've got a right to say and believe anything I please, but I haven't got a right to press it on anybody else. .... Nobody's got a right to be a nuisance to his neighbors.
It is a sin to believe in the evil of others, but it is seldom a mistake.
It is a sin to believe in the evil of others, but it is seldom a mistake.
