H. L. Mencken Quotes.
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.
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.
Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages.
Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
There is a saying in Baltimore that crabs may be prepared in fifty ways and that all of them are good.
Theology is the effort to explain the unknowable in terms of the not worth knowing.
Bachelors know more about women than married men; if they didn’t they’d be married too.
Morality is the theory that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that 99 % of them are wrong.
God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.
We must be willing to pay a price for freedom.
Self-respect: the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious.
The only cure for contempt is counter-contempt.
A man always remembers his first love with special tenderness, but after that he begins to bunch them.
The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.
A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.
