H.L. Mencken
Quotes
A man who has throttled a bad impulse has at least some consolation in his agonies, but a man who has throttled a good one is in a bad way indeed.
In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for. As for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.
A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier.
A man may be a fool and not know it — but not if he is married.
Misogynist — A man who hates women as much as women hate one another.
The lunatic fringe wags the underdog.
Wealth — Any income that is at least $100 more a year than the income of one's wife's sister's husband.
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
Sunday — A day given over by Americans to wishing that they themselves were dead and in Heaven, and that their neighbors were dead and in Hell.
God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the miserable. They find not only sanctuary in His arms, but also a kind of superiority, soothing to their macerated egos: He will set them above their betters.
Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.
Equality before the law is probably forever inattainable. It is a noble ideal, but it can never be realized, for what men value in this world is not rights but privileges.
