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H. L. Mencken

75 quotes

H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, and cultural critic known as the "Sage of Baltimore." A fierce defender of free speech and a sharp observer of American life, Mencken skewered politics, religion, and popular culture with a wit that remains unmatched in American journalism.

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“Legend: A lie that has attained the dignity of age.”

— H. L. Mencken

Age

All Quotes by H. L. Mencken

“War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands.”

— H. L. Mencken

Peace

“Honor is simply the morality of superior men.”

— H. L. Mencken

Men

“Bachelors know more about women than married men if they didn't they'd be married too.”

— H. L. Mencken

Marriage

“It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.”

— H. L. Mencken

Funny

“Communism, like any other revealed religion, is largely made up of prophecies.”

— H. L. Mencken

Religion

“Nine times out of ten, in the arts as in life, there is actually no truth to be discovered there is only error to be exposed.”

— H. L. Mencken

Truth

“For it is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together. Our friends seldom profit us but they make us feel safe. Marriage is a scheme to accomplish exactly that same end.”

— H. L. Mencken

Marriage

“In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.”

— H. L. Mencken

Politics

“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.”

— H. L. Mencken

Politics

“The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God's children, but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil.”

— H. L. Mencken

Failure

“All government, of course, is against liberty.”

— H. L. Mencken

Government

“Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sign that he expects to be paid for it.”

— H. L. Mencken

Love

“Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time.”

— H. L. Mencken

Time

“It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods.”

— H. L. Mencken

God

“Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop.”

— H. L. Mencken

Love

“A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.”

— H. L. Mencken

Good

“To be in love is merely to be in a state of perceptual anesthesia - to mistake an ordinary young woman for a goddess.”

— H. L. Mencken

Love

“Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.”

— H. L. Mencken

Art

“I hate all sports as rabidly as a person who likes sports hates common sense.”

— H. L. Mencken

Sports

“I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.”

— H. L. Mencken

Government