"One may no more live in the world without picking up the moral prejudices of the world than one will be able to go to hell without perspiring"

H. L. Mencken’s witty analogy likens absorbing the world’s moral prejudices to the inevitability of perspiring in hell. He asserts that as human beings move through life, they are unavoidably shaped by the moral assumptions and judgments prevalent in their societies. Just as one cannot physically enter a place of extreme heat without the natural bodily reaction of sweat, a person cannot fully engage with the wider world while remaining untouched by its values, biases, and ethical preferences.

The comparison to hell and perspiration is deliberately provocative. Hell, as popularly conceived, is so hot that sweating is not just probable, it’s inevitable. By analogy, Mencken suggests that society’s moral codes are so pervasive and deeply imbued in every aspect of communal life that adopting at least some prejudices is inescapable. No matter how consciously critical or independent-minded a person may be, the constant, often subconscious, exposure to values propagated by family, media, religious institutions, and peers will leave its mark.

Mencken's phrasing, "moral prejudices", is particularly significant. Rather than using the neutral term "moral values", he highlights the uncritical, sometimes irrational aspects of social morality, prejudices that are absorbed not through deliberate consideration, but through osmosis. These might include assumptions about right and wrong, ideas of virtue and vice, or shared beliefs about which behaviors are praiseworthy or shameful. Society’s influence is not benignly imparting wisdom but is often simply transmitting biases that have accrued over generations.

At the heart of Mencken's observation lies a skepticism about the purity of personal conviction. Even those who see themselves as independent thinkers or moral pioneers are not impervious to the norms and judgments harbored by the majority. The pathway to true autonomy of thought is obstructed by the overwhelming ubiquity and pressure of the collective moral consciousness, which shapes individuals as subtly and inexorably as the climate dictates the body’s physiological responses.