H. L. Mencken ( 10 of 103 )
The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.
The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.
The psychologists and the metaphysicians wrangle endlessly over the nature of the thinking process in man, but no matter how read more
The psychologists and the metaphysicians wrangle endlessly over the nature of the thinking process in man, but no matter how violently they differ otherwise they all agree that it has little to do with logic and is not much conditioned by overt facts.
Bachelors know more about women than married men; if they didn't they'd be married too.
Bachelors know more about women than married men; if they didn't they'd be married too.
The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in which it is overestimated.
The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in which it is overestimated.
We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense that we respect his theory that his wife read more
We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.
Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage.
Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage.
And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are read more
And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are maintained in order to bring this uniformity up to the highest possible point. A school is a hopper into which children are heaved while they are still young and tender; therein they are pressed into certain standard shapes and covered from head to heels with official rubber-stamps.
If I ever marry, it will be on a sudden impulse - as a man shoots himself.
If I ever marry, it will be on a sudden impulse - as a man shoots himself.
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.
It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone- that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows read more
It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone- that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows more than any man of, say, the Eighteenth Century, and is far more civilized. This assumption is quite erroneous...The great masses of men, even in this inspired republic, are precisely where the mob was at the dawn of history. They are ignorant, they are dishonest, they are cowardly, they are ignoble. They know little if anything that is worth knowing, and there is not the slightest sign of a natural desire among them to increase their knowledge.
