H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

Quotes

• Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.

• Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.

• I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.

• In the United States, doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favorite device of persons with something to sell.

• It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.

• It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull.

• 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.

• The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in which it is overestimated.

• 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.

• The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.

• The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.

• The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth--that the error and truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it is cured on one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one.

• Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.

• The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.

• All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.