H.L. Mencken

usa good sell

"In the United States, doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favorite device of persons with something to sell."

—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

broke underestimating taste american

"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."

– H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

value money world overestimated

"The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in which it is overestimated."

– H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

politics state alarm hobgoblin imaginary

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace in a continual state of alarm (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing them with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

– H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

government ashamed decent man

"Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under."

– H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

century theology knowable religion

"For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing."

– H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

lawful catholic woman mathematics pregnant physics chemistry

"It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics or chemistry."

– H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

ten commandments pleasant fact

"Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them."

– H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

older wisdom

“The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.”

― H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

normal tempting black flag slit throats

“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”

― H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

dangerous government think intolerable

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable...”

― H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

common-sense favor honesty decency

“In the present case it is a little inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible to any public office of trust or profit in the Republic. But I do not repine, for I am a subject of it only by force of arms.”

― H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

democracy president moron

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. 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.”

― H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

democracy pathetic ignorance underestimate

“Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”

― H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

politician burglar honest

“A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.”

― H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

teacher knowledge simple wonderful

“The best teacher is not the one who knows most but the one who is most capable of reducing knowledge to that simple compound of the obvious and wonderful.”

― H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

life length width depth

“You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.”

― H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

suspicious average

“I am suspicious of all the things that the average people believes.”

― H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

puritanism fear happy

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

― H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

men women distrust

“On one issue, at least, men and women agree: they both distrust women.”

― H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

democracy theory people

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.”

― H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

democracy vote wise free christianity good

“Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.”

― H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

education enlightenment individual dissent originality

"The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same level, to breed a srandard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality".

—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

problem solution simple concise clear wrong

"For every complex problem there is a solution that is concise, clear, simple, and wrong."

—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

election auction stolen goods

"Every election is a sort of advance auction of stolen goods."

—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

government exploitation enemy

"All government is, in its essence, organized exploitation, and in virtually all of its existing forms it is the implacable enemy of every industrious and well-disposed man."

—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

common sense honesty decency ineligible public office

"I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office."

—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

liberty believe enforce

"I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone."

—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

government dangerous think dishonest insane intolerable

"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself...Almost inevitably, he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable."

—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

government grow worse satisfactory constitute support

"The natural tendency of every government is to grow steadily worse—that is, to grow more satisfactory to those who constitute it and less satisfactory to those who support it."

—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

government failure civilized criminal grasping unintelligent

"Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, criminal, grasping, and unintelligent."

—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

bureaucrat talent complicated unworkable rules

"The true bureaucrat is a man of really remarkable talents…an almost infinite capacity for forming complicated and unworkable rules."

—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

bureaucracy citizen criminal fact suspicion

"It is the invariable habit of bureaucracies, at all times and everywhere, to assume...that every citizen is a criminal. Their one apparent purpose, pursued with a relentless and furious diligence, is to convert the assumption into a fact. They hunt endlessly for proofs, and, when proofs are lacking, for mere suspicions."

—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

government adopt enforce idea idiotic

"The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic."

—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

politician cannibal constituent missionary dinner

"If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner."

—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

believe hear see

"Never believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see."

—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

plain folks desire white house moron president US

“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."

—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

American admire liars detest violently truth

“The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.”

—H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)