No man of honor ever quite lives up to his code, any more than a moral man manages to avoid sin. H. L. Mencken More Quotes by H. L. Mencken More Quotes From H. L. Mencken It is [a politician's] business to get and hold his job at all costs. If he can hold it by lying, he will hold it by lying; if lying peters out, he will try to hold it by embracing new truths. His ear is ever close to the ground. H. L. Mencken trying jobs lying If the average man is made in God's image, then a man such as Beethoven or Aristotle is plainly superior to God, and so God may be jealous of him, and eager to see his superiority perish with his bodily frame. H. L. Mencken made average men Have you ever watched a crab on the shore crawling backward in search of the Atlantic Ocean, and missing? That's the way the mind of man operates. H. L. Mencken ocean missing-you men Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sign that he expects to be paid for it. H. L. Mencken patriotic love country He who eats alone chokes alone. H. L. Mencken arabian dining-alone choke Human progress is furthered, not by conformity, but by aberration. H. L. Mencken aberration progress wisdom I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant. H. L. Mencken nature truth inspirational Suppose two-thirds of the members of the national House of Representatives were dumped into the Washington garbage incinerator tomorrow, what would we lose to offset our gain of their salaries and the salaries of their parasites? H. L. Mencken salary house two The objection of the scandalmonger is not that she tells of racy doings, but that she pretends to be indignant about them. H. L. Mencken indignant doings gossip Democracy turns upon and devours itself. Universal suffrage, in theory the palladium of our liberties, becomes the assurance of our slavery. And that slavery will grow more and more abject and ignoble as the differential birth rate, the deliberate encouragement of mendicancy and the failure of popular education produce a larger and larger mass of prehensile half-wits, and so make the demagogues more and more secure. H. L. Mencken birth-rate democracy encouragement What makes philosophy so tedious is not the profundity of philosophers, but their lack of art; they are like physicians who soughtto cure a slight hyperacidity by prescribing a carload of burned oyster-shells. H. L. Mencken philosophical philosophy art One of the main purposes of laws in a democratic society is to put burdens upon intelligence and reduce it to impotence. Ostensibly, their aim is to penalize anti-social acts; actually their aim is to penalize heretical opinions. At least ninety-five Americans out of every 100 believe that this process is honest and even laudable; it is practically impossible to convince them that there is anything evil in it. In other words, they cannot grasp the concept of liberty. H. L. Mencken business law believe We suffer most when the White House busts with ideas. H. L. Mencken white house ideas Why writers write I do not know. As well ask why a hen lays an egg or why a cow stands patiently while an underprivileged farmer burglarizes her. H. L. Mencken hens eggs writing A skeptic as to all ideas, including especially my own, I have never suffered a pang when the ideas of some other imbecile prevailed. H. L. Mencken imbeciles envy ideas When somebody says it’s not about the money, it’s about the money. H. L. Mencken Off goes the head of the king, and tyranny gives way to freedom. The change seems abysmal. Then, bit by bit, the face of freedom hardens, and by and by it is the old face of tyranny. Then another cycle, and another. But under the play of all these opposites there is something fundamental and permanent - the basic delusion that men may be governed and yet be free. H. L. Mencken change kings men Nietzsche, to the end of his days, remained a Russian pastor's son, and hence two-thirds of a Puritan; he erected his war upon holiness, toward the end, into a sort of holy war. H. L. Mencken philosophical war son The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God's children, but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil. H. L. Mencken failure taken children Probably the worst thing that has happened in America in my time is the decay of confidence in the courts. No one can be sure any more that in a given case they will uphold the plainest mandate of the Constitution. On the contrary, everyone begins to be more or less convinced in advance that they won't. Judges are chosen not because they know the Constitution and are in favor of it, but precisely because they appear to be against it. H. L. Mencken decay judging america
