H. L. Mencken

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

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

There is only one honest impulse at the bottom of Puritanism, and that is the impulse to punish the man read more

There is only one honest impulse at the bottom of Puritanism, and that is the impulse to punish the man with a superior capacity for happiness.

The average man does not get pleasure out of an idea because he thinks it is true; he thinks it read more

The average man does not get pleasure out of an idea because he thinks it is true; he thinks it is true because he gets pleasure out of it.

To wage a war for a purely moral reason is as absurd as to ravish a woman for a purely read more

To wage a war for a purely moral reason is as absurd as to ravish a woman for a purely moral reason.

Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.

Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.