Quotations by Author

H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
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A celebrity is one who is known to many persons he is glad he doesn't know.
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H. L. Mencken
A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.
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H. L. Mencken
A home is not a mere transient shelter: its essence lies in the personalities of the people who live in it.
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H. L. Mencken
A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.
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H. L. Mencken
A poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child.
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H. L. Mencken
All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.
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H. L. Mencken
All successful newspapers are ceaselessly querulous and bellicose. They never defend anyone or anything if they can help it; if the job is forced on them, they tackle it by denouncing someone or something else.
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H. L. Mencken
All [zoos] actually offer to the public in return for the taxes spent upon them is a form of idle and witless amusement, compared to which a visit to a penitentiary, or even to a State legislature in session, is informing, stimulating and ennobling.
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H. L. Mencken
An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.
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H. L. Mencken
Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepare to see them misunderstood.
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H. L. Mencken
Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.
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H. L. Mencken
Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.
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H. L. Mencken
Criticism is prejudice made plausible.
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H. L. Mencken
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
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H. L. Mencken
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
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H. L. Mencken
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.
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H. L. Mencken
Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.
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H. L. Mencken
For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing.
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H. L. Mencken
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.
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H. L. Mencken
Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.
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H. L. Mencken
Showing quotations 1 to 20 of 65 total Next Page ->
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