H. L. Mencken

It is the fundamental theory of all the more recent American law...that the average citizen is half-witted, and hence not read more

It is the fundamental theory of all the more recent American law...that the average citizen is half-witted, and hence not to be trusted to either his own devices or his own thoughts.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed [and hence clamorous to be led to safety] read more

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 difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even read more

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.

To be in love is merely to be in a perpetual state of anesthesia--to mistake an ordinary young man for read more

To be in love is merely to be in a perpetual state of anesthesia--to mistake an ordinary young man for a Greek god or an ordinary young woman for a goddess.

God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the miserable. They find not only sanctuary in His arms, read more

God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the miserable. They find not only sanctuary in His arms, but also a kind of superiority, soothing to their macerated egos; He will set the above their betters.