Quotations from

H. L. Mencken

About

Picture of H. L. Mencken

Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on literature, music, prominent politicians, and contemporary movements. His satirical reporting on the Scopes trial, which he dubbed the "Monkey Trial", also earned him attention. The term Menckenian has entered multiple dictionaries to describe anything of or pertaining to Mencken, including his combative rhetorical and prose styles.

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H. L. Mencken is sometimes cited as:

Quotes from H. L. Mencken

Women upset everything. When you let them into your life, you find that the woman is driving at one thing and you're driving at another.

—H. L. Mencken

Don't be a fool and die for your country. Let the other sonofabitch die for his.

—H. L. Mencken

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.

—H. L. Mencken

Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages.

—H. L. Mencken

A poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child.

—H. L. Mencken

We are here and now. Further than that, all knowledge is moonshine.

—H. L. Mencken

I never lecture, not because I am shy or a bad speaker, but simply because I detest the sort of people who go to lectures and don't want to meet them.

—H. L. Mencken

Perhaps the most revolting character that the United States ever produced was the Christian businessman.

—H. L. Mencken

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.

—H. L. Mencken

The true aim of medicine is surely not to make men virtuous; it is to safeguard and rescue them from the consequences of their vices.

—H. L. Mencken

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

—H. L. Mencken

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

—H. L. Mencken

My guess is that well over 80 percent of the human race goes without having a single original thought.

—H. L. Mencken

We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine.

—H. L. Mencken

It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.

—H. L. Mencken

Books

H. L. Mencken has the following books quoted on Quodid: