American - Writer | September 12, 1880 - January 29, 1956
It is not materialism that is the chief curse of the world, as pastors teach, but idealism. Men get into trouble by taking their visions and hallucinations too seriously.
H. L. Mencken
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A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.
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I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing.
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Don't overestimate the decency of the human race.
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Whenever a husband and wife begin to discuss their marriage they are giving evidence at a coroner's inquest.
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Self-respect: the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious.
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Strike an average between what a woman thinks of her husband a month before she marries him and what she thinks of him a year afterward, and you will have the truth about him.
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Temptation is an irresistible force at work on a movable body.
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Platitude: an idea (a) that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b) that is not true.
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It doesn't take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause.
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It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf.
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Love is an emotion that is based on an opinion of women that is impossible for those who have had any experience with them.
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