H. L. Mencken Quotes

What men value in this world is not rights but privileges.

An idealist notices that roses smell better than cabbage and concludes that it will also make better soup.

The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.

Journalism is to politician as dog is to lamp-post.

A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.

In every woman's life, there is one real and consuming love. But very few women guess which one it is.

The final test of truth is ridicule. Very few dogmas have ever faced it and survived.

Change is not progress.

Free speech is too dangerous to a democracy to be permitted

When fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.

Most people want security in this world, not liberty.

Misogynist: A man who hates women as much as women hate one another.

Freedom of press is limited to those who own one.

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.

The kind of man who demands that government enforce his ideas is always the kind whose ideas are idiotic.

Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

When somebody says it’s not about the money, it’s about the money.

There is no idea so stupid that you can't find a professor who will believe it.

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who can think things out for himself.

There are two impossibilities in life: "just one drink" and "an honest politician."

Sometimes the idiots outvote the sensible people.

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.

There's really no point in voting. If it made any difference, it would probably be illegal.

After all, is said and done, a hell lot of a lot more is said than done.

The State doesn't just want you to obey, it wants to make you WANT to obey.

The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.

The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.