1,045 Quotes by H. L. Mencken

A sound American is simply one who has put out of his mind all doubts and questionings, and who accepts instantly, and as incontrovertible gospel, the whole body of official doctrine of his day, whatever it may be and no matter how often it may change. The instant he challenges it, no matter how timorously and academically, he ceases by that much to be a loyal and creditable citizen of the republic.

I am against slavery simply because I dislike slaves.

One yearns unspeakably for a composer who gives out his pair of honest themes, and then develops them unashamed, and then hangs a brisk coda to them, and then shuts up.

For it is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together.

The common notion that free speech prevails in the United States always makes me laugh.

To wage a war for a purely moral reason is as absurd as to ravish a woman for a purely moral reason

The state remains, as it was in the beginning, the common enemy of all well-disposed, industrious and decent men.

the average man does not want to be free. he simply wants to be safe.

Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.