War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands. H. L. Mencken More Quotes by H. L. Mencken More Quotes From H. L. Mencken Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time. H. L. Mencken crazy silly funny Capital punishment has probably been responsible for a good deal of human progress. The overwhelming majority of those executed were of the sort whose departures for bliss eternal improved the average intelligence and decency of the race. H. L. Mencken punishment race average Kipling, the grandson of a Methodist preacher, reveals the tin-pot evangelist with increasing clarity as youth and its ribaldries pass away and he falls back upon his fundamentals. H. L. Mencken tin passing-away fall All great religions, in order to escape absurdity, have to admit a dilution of agnosticism. It is only the savage, whether of the African bush or the American gospel tent, who pretends to know the will and intent of God exactly and completely. H. L. Mencken atheism order religion The average schoolmaster is, and always must be, an ass. H. L. Mencken ass average teacher The feelings that Beethoven put into his music were the feelings of a god. There was something olympian in his snarls and rages, and there was a touch of hellfire in his mirth. H. L. Mencken mirth music feelings Those tragic comedians, the Chamber of Commerce red hunters, the Women's Christian Temperance Union smellers, the censors of books, the Klan regulators, the Methodist prowlers, the Baptist guardians of sacred vessels-we have the national mentality of a police lieutenant. H. L. Mencken christian book america Change is not progress. H. L. Mencken progress change Here is one of the fundamental defects of American fiction--perhaps the one character that sets it off sharply from all other known kinds of contemporary fiction. It habitually exhibits, not a man of delicate organization in revolt against the inexplicable tragedy of existence, but a man of low sensibilities and elemental desires yielding himself gladly to his environment, and so achieving what, under a third-rate civilization, passes for success. To get on: this is the aim. To weigh and reflect, to doubt and rebel: this is the thing to be avoided. H. L. Mencken contemporary-fiction character men Happiness is peace after strife, the overcoming of difficulties, the feeling of security and well-being. The only really happy folk are married women and single men. H. L. Mencken marriage happiness men A dull, dark, depressing day in Winter: the whole world looks like a Methodist church at Wednesday night prayer meeting. H. L. Mencken depressing prayer dark The theatre, when all is said and done, is not life in miniature, but life enormously magnified, life hideously exaggerated. H. L. Mencken theatre done said As long as you represent me as praising alcohol I shall not complain. It is, I believe, the greatest of human inventions, and by far - much greater than Hell, the radio or the bichloride tablet. H. L. Mencken food long believe The harsh, useful things of the world, from pulling teeth to digging potatoes, are best done by men who are as starkly sober as so many convicts in the death-house, but the lovely and useless things, the charming and exhilarating things, are best done by men with, as the phrase is, a few sheets in the wind. H. L. Mencken drinking wind men There is always an easy solution to every problem - neat, plausible, and wrong. H. L. Mencken neat-and-tidy simple-solutions business Philosophy consists very largely of one philosopher arguing that all others are jackasses. He usually proves it, and I should add that he also usually proves that he is one himself. H. L. Mencken philosophy funny science Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends. H. L. Mencken freedom law mother No matter how long he lives, no man ever becomes as wise as the average woman of forty-eight. H. L. Mencken women wisdom wise In the United States, doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favorite device of persons with something to sell. H. L. Mencken patriotism cynical united-states The saddest life is that of a political aspirant under democracy. His failure is ignominious and his success is disgraceful. H. L. Mencken democracy political life-is
