I'm thoroughly convinced that editors don't help authors. H. L. Mencken More Quotes by H. L. Mencken More Quotes From H. L. Mencken It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place. H. L. Mencken love relationship life Man is always looking for someone to boast to; woman is always looking for a shoulder to put her head on. H. L. Mencken shoulders literature men The main thing that every political campaign in the United States demonstrates is that the politicians of all parties, despite their superficial enmities, are really members of one great brotherhood. Their principal, and indeed their sole, object is to collar public office, with all the privileges and profits that go therewith. They achieve this collaring by buying votes with other people's money. H. L. Mencken party office people Psychotherapy is the theory that the patient will probably get well anyhow and is certainly a damn fool. H. L. Mencken fool get-well patient The doctrine that the cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy is like saying that the cure of crime is more crime. H. L. Mencken doctrine democracy evil I believe in only one thing and that thing is human liberty. If ever a man is to achieve anything like dignity, it can happen only if superior men are given absolute freedom to think what they want to think and say what they want to say. I am against any man and any organization which seeks to limit or deny that freedom... [and] the superior man can be sure of freedom only if it is given to all men. H. L. Mencken freedom men believe Setting aside the vast herd which shows no definable character at all, it seems to me that the minority distinguished by what is commonly regarded as an excess of sin is very much more admirable than the minority distinguished by an excess of virtue. My experience of the world has taught me that the average wine-bibbler is a far better fellow than the average prohibitionist, and that the average rogue is better company than the average poor drudge, and that the worst white-slave trader of my acquaintance is a decenter man than the best vice crusader. H. L. Mencken wine character men The idea that leisure is of value in itself is only conditionally true. The average man simply spends his leisure as a dog spends it. His recreations are all puerile, and the time supposed to benefit him really only stupefies him. H. L. Mencken dog average men Life is a dead-end street. H. L. Mencken streets dead-ends life A man of active and resilient mind outwears his friendships just as certainly as he outwears his love affairs, his politics and his epistemology. H. L. Mencken his-love mind men There are some politicians who, if their constituents were cannibals, would promise them missionaries in every pot. H. L. Mencken politician pot promise Liberty is not for these slaves; I do not advocate inflicting it against their conscience. On the contrary, I am strongly in favor of letting them crawl and grovel all they please before whatever fraud or combination of frauds they choose to venerate...Our whole practical government is grounded in mob psychology and the Boobus Americanus will follow any command that promises to make him safer. H. L. Mencken psychology freedom government Religion is a conceited effort to deny the most obvious realities. H. L. Mencken effort conceited reality The sort of man who likes to spend his time watching a cage of monkeys chase one another, or a lion gnaw its tail, or a lizard catch flies, is precisely the sort of man whose mental weakness should be combated at the public expense, not fostered. H. L. Mencken weakness tails men The best years are the forties; after fifty a man begins to deteriorate, but in the forties he is at the maximum of his villainy. H. L. Mencken fifty men years Skin diseases are something doctors like, the patient neither dies nor gets well. H. L. Mencken doctors get-well skins A Progressive is one who is in favor of more taxes instead of less, more bureaus and jobholders, more paternalism and meddling, more regulation of private affairs and less liberty. In general, he would be inclined to regard the repeal of any tax as outrageous. H. L. Mencken favors liberty would-be Nature abhors a moron. H. L. Mencken moron stupidity nature I do not believe in democracy, but I am perfectly willing to admit that it provides the only really amusing form of government ever endured by mankind. H. L. Mencken democracy government believe The true aim of medicine is not to make men virtuous; it is to safeguard and rescue them from the consequences of their vices. The physician does not preach repentance; he offers absolution. H. L. Mencken hygiene medicine men
