Quotes by H. L. Mencken

About H. L. Mencken:

Henry Louis is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the twentieth century. As a scholar Mencken is known for The American Language, a multi-volume study of how the English language is spoken in the United States. His satirical reporting on the Scopes trial, which he dubbed the "Monkey Trial", also earned him notoriety. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians and contemporary movements.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Say what you will about the ten commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.

H. L. Mencken

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

H. L. Mencken

A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier.

H. L. Mencken

An idealist is one who, on noticing that roses smell better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.

H. L. Mencken

If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.

H. L. Mencken

A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.

H. L. Mencken

There is always an easy solution to every problem - neat, plausible, and wrong.

H. L. Mencken

Alimony - the ransom that the happy pay to the devil.

H. L. Mencken

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

I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing.

H. L. Mencken

Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses.

H. L. Mencken

A church is a place in which gentlemen who have never been to heaven brag about it to persons who will never get there.

H. L. Mencken

A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground.

H. L. Mencken

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.

H. L. Mencken

If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl.

H. L. Mencken

A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.

H. L. Mencken

It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics or chemistry.

H. L. Mencken

Don't overestimate the decency of the human race.

H. L. Mencken

I write in order to attain that feeling of tension relieved and function achieved which a cow enjoys on giving milk.

H. L. Mencken

Before a man speaks it is always safe to assume that he is a fool. After he speaks, it is seldom necessary to assume it.

H. L. Mencken

Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone might be looking.

H. L. Mencken

Author Bio

  • NameH. L. Mencken
  • DescriptionAmerican journalist and writer
  • AliasesH. L. Mencken
  • BornSeptember 12, 1880
  • DiedJanuary 29, 1956
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionJournalist; Satirist; Literary Critic; Essayist; Social Critic; Autobiographer