Henry Louis Mencken
United States
12 Sep 1880 // 29 Jan 1956
Journalist / Satirist /Social critic
12 Sep 1880 // 29 Jan 1956
Journalist / Satirist /Social critic
Quotes
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To denounce moralizing out of hand is to pronounce a moral judgment
Time is the great legalizer, even in the field of morals
The worst government is the most moral
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
The way to hold a husband is to keep him a little jealous; the way to lose him is to keep him a little more jealous
The value the world sets upon motives is often grossly unjust and inaccurate
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule
The truth that survives is simply the lie that is pleasantest to believe
The only really happy folk are married women and single men
The only kind of freedom that the mob can imagine is freedom to annoy and oppress its betters, and that is precisely the kind that we mainly have
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays
Essays