All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it. H. L. Mencken More Quotes by H. L. Mencken More Quotes From H. L. Mencken The artist is not a reporter, but a Great Teacher. It is not his business to depict the world as it is, but as it ought to be. H. L. Mencken artistteacherworld Let no one mistake it for comedy, farcical though it may be in all its details. It serves notice on the country that Neanderthal man is organizing in these forlorn backwaters of the land, led by a fanatic, rid of sense and devoid of conscience. H. L. Mencken mistakesciencecountry Here is tragedy - and here is America. For the curse of the country, as well of all democracies, is precisely the fact that it treats its best men as enemies. The aim of our society, if it may be said to have an aim, is to iron them out. The ideal American, in the public sense, is a respectable vacuum. H. L. Mencken ironmencountry I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs. There is in every living creature an obscure but powerful impulse to active functioning. Life demands to be lived. Inaction, save as a measure of recuperation between bursts of activity, is painful and dangerous to the healthy organism- in fact, it is almost impossible. Only the dying can be really idle. H. L. Mencken powerfulsuccesslife God must love the rich or he wouldn't divide so much among so few of them. H. L. Mencken dividesrichwealth Women hate revolutions and revolutionists. They like men who are docile, and well-regarded at the bank, and never late at meals. H. L. Mencken mealshatemen On the one hand, we may tell the truth, regardless of consequences, and on the other hand we may mellow it and sophisticate it to make it humane and tolerable. H. L. Mencken telling-the-truthmayhands The mistake that is made always runs the other way. Because the plain people are able to speak and understand, and even, in many cases, to read and write, it is assumed that they have ideas in their heads, and an appetite for more. This assumption is a folly. H. L. Mencken mistakewritingrunning Man is never honestly the fatalist, nor even the stoic. He fights his fate, often desperately. He is forever entering bold exceptions to the rulings of the bench of gods. This fighting, no doubt, makes for human progress, for it favors the strong and the brave. It also makes for beauty, for lesser men try to escape from a hopeless and intolerable world by creating a more lovely one of their own. H. L. Mencken fatefightingstrong It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty. H. L. Mencken kidneyslovemen It is not a sign of communal well-being when men turn to their government to execute all their business for them, but rather a sign of decay, as in the United States today. The state, indeed, is but one of the devices that a really healthy community sets up to manage its affairs. H. L. Mencken healthycommunitymen A fool who, after plain warning, persists in dosing himself with dangerous drugs should be free to do so, for his death is a benefit to the race in general. H. L. Mencken drugpoliticalrace Law and its instrument, government, are necessary to the peace and safety of all of us, but all of us, unless we live the lives of mud turtles, frequently find them arrayed against us. H. L. Mencken turtlesgovernmentlaw A sense of humor always withers in the presence of the messianic delusion, like justice and the truth in front of patriotic passion. H. L. Mencken patrioticpassionhumor Pedagogues: More than any other class of blind leaders of the blind they are responsible for the degrading standardization which now afflicts the American people. H. L. Mencken leaderclasspeople I believe that it should be perfectly lawful to print even things that outrage the pruderies and prejudices of the general, so long as any honest minority, however small, wants to read them. The remedy of the majority is not prohibition, but avoidance. H. L. Mencken majoritylongbelieve The only liberty an inferior man really cherishes is the liberty to quit work, stretch out in the sun, and scratch himself. H. L. Mencken stressworkmen Morality is the theory that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that 99 % of them are wrong. H. L. Mencken sadmotherhoodreligion If the American people really tire of democracy and want to make a trial of Fascism, I shall be the last person to object. But if that is their mood, then they had better proceed toward their aim by changing the Constitution and not by forgetting it. H. L. Mencken democracypoliticalpeople The chief business of the nation, as a nation, is the setting up of heroes, mainly bogus. H. L. Mencken settingschiefshero
