There is no record in human history of a happy philosopher: they exist only in romantic legend. H. L. Mencken More Quotes by H. L. Mencken More Quotes From H. L. Mencken Free speech is too dangerous to a democracy to be permitted H. L. Mencken free-speech democracy speech All successful newspapers are ceaselessly querulous and bellicose. They never defend anyone or anything if they can help it; if the job is forced on them, they tackle it by denouncing someone or something else. H. L. Mencken successful helping jobs The only really happy folk are married women and single men. H. L. Mencken married literature men Always remember this: If you don't attend the funerals of your friends, they will certainly not attend yours. H. L. Mencken funeral age remember If x is the population of the United States and y is the degree of imbecility of the average American, then democracy is the theory that x times y is less than y H. L. Mencken united-states democracy average It is often argued that religion is valuable because it makes men good, but even if this were true it would not be a proof that religion is true. That would be an extension of pragmatism beyond endurance. Santa Claus makes children good in precisely the same way, and yet no one would argue seriously that the fact proves his existence. The defense of religion is full of such logical imbecilities. H. L. Mencken political men children Any man who, having a child or children he can't support, proceeds to have another should be sterilized at once. H. L. Mencken support men children Poverty is a soft pedal upon the branches of human activity, not excepting the spiritual. H. L. Mencken poverty branches spiritual It is the mission of the pedagogue, not to make his pupils think, but to make them think right, and the more nearly his own mind pulsates with the great ebbs and flows of popular delusion and emotion, the more admirably he performs his function. He may be an ass, but that is surely no demerit in a man paid to make asses of his customers. H. L. Mencken teaching men thinking School teachers, taking them by and large, are probably the most ignorant and stupid class of men in the whole group of mental workers. H. L. Mencken stupid teacher school A man's women folk, whatever their outward show of respect for his merit and authority, always regard him secretly as an ass, and with something akin to pity. His most gaudy sayings and doings seldom deceive them; they see the actual man within, and know him for a shallow and pathetic fellow. In this fact, perhaps, lies one of the best proofs of feminine intelligence, or, as the common phrase makes it, feminine intuition. H. L. Mencken intuition women lying A man who knows a subject thoroughly, a man so soaked in it that he eats it, sleeps it and dreams it- this man can always teach it with success, no matter how little he knows of technical pedagogy. H. L. Mencken dream education inspirational After all, all he did was string together a lot of old, well-known quotations. H. L. Mencken writing funny book Man's objection to love is that it dies hard: women's, that when it is dead it stays dead. H. L. Mencken objections women love-is As for me, my literary theory, like my politics, is based chiefly upon one main idea, to wit, the idea of freedom. I am, in brief, a libertarian of the most extreme variety, and know of no human right that is one-tenth as valuable as the simple right to utter what seems (at the moment) to be the truth H. L. Mencken literary-theory simple ideas All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. H. L. Mencken progress society men To wage a war for a purely moral reason is as absurd as to ravish a woman for a purely moral reason H. L. Mencken moral war peace Men always try to make virtues of their weaknesses. Fear of death and fear of life both become piety. H. L. Mencken atheism fear men I never smoked a cigarette until I was nine. H. L. Mencken cigarette nine literature Puccini - silver macaroni, exquisitely tangled. H. L. Mencken composer tangled silver
