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

Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what sting is justice.

H. L. Mencken

Opera in English is, in the main, just about as sensible as baseball in Italian.

H. L. Mencken

I never smoked a cigarette until I was nine.

H. L. Mencken

As the arteries grow hard, the heart grows soft.

H. L. Mencken

The only cure for contempt is counter-contempt.

H. L. Mencken

Self-respect: the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious.

H. L. Mencken

Platitude: an idea (a) that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b) that is not true.

H. L. Mencken

In the duel of sex woman fights from a dreadnought and man from an open raft.

H. L. Mencken

Man is always looking for someone to boast to; woman is always looking for a shoulder to put her head on.

H. L. Mencken

No man ever quite believes in any other man. One may believe in an idea absolutely, but not in a man.

H. L. Mencken

Man weeps to think that he will die so soon; woman, that she was born so long ago.

H. L. Mencken

One may no more live in the world without picking up the moral prejudices of the world than one will be able to go to hell without perspiring.

H. L. Mencken

For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing.

H. L. Mencken

Most people are unable to write because they are unable to think, and they are unable to think because they congenitally lack the equipment to do so, just as they congenitally lack the equipment to fly over the moon.

H. L. Mencken

Theology is the effort to explain the unknowable in terms of the not worth knowing.

H. L. Mencken

I never lecture, not because I am shy or a bad speaker, but simply because I detest the sort of people who go to lectures and don't want to meet them.

H. L. Mencken

The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.

H. L. Mencken

I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs.

H. L. Mencken

Man is a beautiful machine that works very badly.

H. L. Mencken

Judge: a law student who marks his own examination-papers.

H. L. Mencken

Women always excel men in that sort of wisdom which comes from experience. To be a woman is in itself a terrible experience.

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