H. L. Mencken the Writer, biography, facts and quotes

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

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

"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"

"Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence"

"It doesn't take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause"

"Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what sting is justice"

"In war the heroes always outnumber the soldiers ten to one"

"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"

"In the duel of sex woman fights from a dreadnought and man from an open raft"

"Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time"

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

"Archbishop - A Christian ecclesiastic of a rank superior to that attained by Christ"

"An idealist is one who, on noticing that roses smell better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup"

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

"All government, of course, is against liberty"

"Alimony - the ransom that the happy pay to the devil"

"Adultery is the application of democracy to love"

"A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents"

"I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone"

"Husbands never become good; they merely become proficient"

"Honor is simply the morality of superior men"

"Historian: an unsuccessful novelist"

"Have you ever watched a crab on the shore crawling backward in search of the Atlantic Ocean, and missing? That's the way the mind of man operates"

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

"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"

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong"

"For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing"

"Democracy is only a dream: it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven"

"Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses"

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance"

"Criticism is prejudice made plausible"

"Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone might be looking"

"Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends"

"Communism, like any other revealed religion, is largely made up of prophecies"

"Before a man speaks it is always safe to assume that he is a fool. After he speaks, it is seldom necessary to assume it"

"Bachelors know more about women than married men; if they didn't they'd be married too"

"As the arteries grow hard, the heart grows soft"

"Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another"

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

"It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place"

"It is hard for the ape to believe he descended from man"

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

"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"

"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule"

"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"

"The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence"

"The opera is to music what a bawdy house is to a cathedral"

"The only really happy folk are married women and single men"

"The only cure for contempt is counter-contempt"

"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"

Born as	Henry Louis Mencken
Occup.	Writer
From	USA
Born	September 12, 1880 Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Died	January 29, 1956 Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Cause	Stroke
Aged	75 years

H. L. Mencken Biography

124 Famous quotes by H. L. Mencken