H. L. Mencken
H. L. Mencken
Henry Louis Menckenwas a German-American journalist, satirist, cultural critic and scholar of American English. Known as the "Sage of Baltimore", he is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the twentieth century. As a scholar Mencken is known for The American Language, a multi-volume study of how the English language is spoken in the United States. His satirical reporting on the Scopes trial, which he dubbed the "Monkey Trial", also...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth12 September 1880
CountryUnited States of America
I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.
The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.
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.
For me to go into politics would be like sending a virgin into a house of ill-repute.
Self-respect: the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious.
What we need in this country is a general improvement in eating. We have the best raw materials in the world, both quantitatively and qualitatively, but most of them are ruined in the process of preparing them for the table.
Don't overestimate the decency of the human race.
The martini: the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet.
The only guarantee of the Bill of Rights which continues to have any force and effect is the one prohibiting quartering troops on citizens in time of peace. All the rest have been disposed of by judicial interpretation and legislative whittling.
There is no possibility whatsoever of reconciling science and theology, at least in Christendom. Either Jesus arose from the dead or He didn't. If he did, then Christianity becomes plausible; if He did not, then it is sheer nonsense. I defy any genuine scientists to say that he believes in the Resurrection, or indeed in any other cardinal dogma of the Christian system.
A man is called a good fellow for doing things which, if done by a woman, would land her in a lunatic asylum.
If the average man is made in God's image, then such a man as Beethoven or Aristotle is plainly superior to God.
I know some who are constantly drunk on books as other men are drunk on whiskey.
The great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable.