H. L. Mencken

All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.

funny


H. L. Mencken

The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.

age


H. L. Mencken

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

age


H. L. Mencken

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.

anniversary


H. L. Mencken

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

art


H. L. Mencken

A national political campaign is better than the best circus ever heard of, with a mass baptism and a couple of hangings thrown in.

best


H. L. Mencken

Love is an emotion that is based on an opinion of women that is impossible for those who have had any experience with them.

experience


H. L. Mencken

Women always excel men in that sort of wisdom which comes from experience. To be a woman is in itself a terrible experience.

experience


H. L. Mencken

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.

failure


H. L. Mencken

Each party steals so many articles of faith from the other, and the candidates spend so much time making each other's speeches, that by the time election day is past there is nothing much to do save turn the sitting rascals out and let a new gang in.

faith


H. L. Mencken

Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.

faith


H. L. Mencken

The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear - fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety.

fear


H. L. Mencken

Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

fear


H. L. Mencken

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

funny


H. L. Mencken

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.

funny


H. L. Mencken

Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution?

funny


H. L. Mencken

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.

god


H. L. Mencken

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.

god


H. L. Mencken

The chief contribution of Protestantism to human thought is its massive proof that God is a bore.

god


H. L. Mencken

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

good


H. L. Mencken

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

good


H. L. Mencken

Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.

good


H. L. Mencken

It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf.

good


H. L. Mencken

A bad man is the sort who weeps every time he speaks of a good woman.

good


H. L. Mencken

Husbands never become good they merely become proficient.

good


H. L. Mencken

If women believed in their husbands they would be a good deal happier and also a good deal more foolish.

good


H. L. Mencken

There is a saying in Baltimore that crabs may be prepared in fifty ways and that all of them are good.

good


H. L. Mencken

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

government


H. L. Mencken

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.

government


H. L. Mencken

The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.

government


H. L. Mencken

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

government


H. L. Mencken

All government, of course, is against liberty.

government


H. L. Mencken

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

government


H. L. Mencken

No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.

great


H. L. Mencken

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

great


H. L. Mencken

Historian: an unsuccessful novelist.

history


H. L. Mencken

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

history


H. L. Mencken

There are men so philosophical that they can see humor in their own toothaches. But there has never lived a man so philosophical that he could see the toothache in his own humor.

humor


H. L. Mencken

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.

imagination


H. L. Mencken

Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.

imagination


H. L. Mencken

We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine.

knowledge


H. L. Mencken

The basic fact about human existence is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not so much a war as an endless standing in line.

life


H. L. Mencken

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

love


H. L. Mencken

Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another.

love


H. L. Mencken

Women have simple tastes. They get pleasure out of the conversation of children in arms and men in love.

love


H. L. Mencken

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

love


H. L. Mencken

A man always remembers his first love with special tenderness, but after that he begins to bunch them.

love


H. L. Mencken

Adultery is the application of democracy to love.

love


H. L. Mencken

Love is an emotion that is based on an opinion of women that is impossible for those who have had any experience with them.

love


H. L. Mencken

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

love


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