1,045 Quotes by H. L. Mencken

The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.

For it is the natural tendency of the ignorant to believe what is not true. In order to overcome that tendency it is not sufficient to exhibit the true; it is also necessary to expose and denounce the false.

The scent of frying astronomers long ago ceased to ascend to Yahweh.

Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses.

To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true!

They have taken the care and upbringing of children out of the hands of parents, where it belongs, and thrown it upon a gang of irresponsible and unintelligent quacks.

The sort of man who likes to spend his time watching a cage of monkeys chase one another, or a lion gnaw its tail, or a lizard catch flies, is precisely the sort of man whose mental weakness should be combated at the public expense, not fostered.

The essence of self-fulfillment and autonomous culture is an unshakable egotism.

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