Quotes from A Mencken Chrestomathy — H. L. Mencken
1880–1956 United States
42 quotes
The value the world sets upon motives is often grossly unjust and inaccurate.
A man may be a fool and not know it — but not if he is married.
Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another.
Creator — A comedian whose audience is afraid to laugh.
Misogynist — A man who hates women as much as women hate one another.
Lawyer — One who protects us against robbers by taking away the temptation.
Self-respect — The secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious.
We are here and it is now: further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine.
Platitude — An idea (a) that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b) that is not true.
When women kiss, it always reminds one of prize-fighters shaking hands.
Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.
Theology — An effort to explain the unknowable by putting it into terms of the not worth knowing.
A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier.
Christian — One who is willing to serve three Gods, but draws the line at one wife.
Attribution
Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: H. L. Mencken (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.