Women decide the larger questions of life correctly and quickly, not because they are lucky guessers, not because they are divinely inspired, not because they practise a magic inherited from savagery, but simply and solely because they have sense. They see at a glance what most men could not see with searchlights and telescopes.... They are the supreme realists of the race.

H. L. Mencken

More Quotes by H. L. Mencken
Categorized in : MenRaceMagic
More Quotes From H. L. Mencken

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

H. L. Mencken
landheartfunny

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H. L. Mencken
democracies-havefreedomgovernment
The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue... by H. L. Mencken

The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.

H. L. Mencken
doctrinecynicalmen

The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.

H. L. Mencken
truthliarssuccess

Morality is doing what is right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right.

H. L. Mencken
atheismmotivationalreligion

The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.

H. L. Mencken
officemenlying

People do not expect to find chastity in a whorehouse. Why, then, do they expect to find honesty and humanity in government, a congeries of institutions whose modus operandi consists of lying, cheating, stealing, and if need be, murdering those who resist?

H. L. Mencken
honestylyingcheating

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.

H. L. Mencken
social-taboosmenthinking

Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.

H. L. Mencken
badassangerfunny

When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental - men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost... All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre.

H. L. Mencken
menideasthinking

It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.

H. L. Mencken
honestyfreedomhate

It is the classic fallacy of our time that a moron run through a university and decorated with a Ph.D. will thereby cease to be a moron.

H. L. Mencken
moronclassicrunning
Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods. by H. L. Mencken

Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.

H. L. Mencken
libertypoliticsauctions

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule—and both commonly succeed, and are right.

H. L. Mencken
freedompartywar

It doesn't take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause.

H. L. Mencken
uprisingcausesleader
Socialist: A man suffering from an overwhelming conviction to bel... by H. L. Mencken

Socialist: A man suffering from an overwhelming conviction to believe what is not true.

H. L. Mencken
sufferingmenbelieve
There is always a well-known solution to every human problem - ne... by H. L. Mencken

There is always a well-known solution to every human problem - neat, plausible, and wrong.

H. L. Mencken
funny-inspirationalfreedombusiness

The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.

H. L. Mencken
learninglibertyeducation
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the... by H. L. Mencken

The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.

H. L. Mencken
freedomwarpeace
Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be hap... by H. L. Mencken

Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

H. L. Mencken
cynicalgodbeing-happy