1,045 Quotes by H. L. Mencken

[A formula for answering controversial letters -- without even reading the letters:] Dear Sir (or Madame): You may be right.

Liberty ... was a two-headed boon. There was first, the liberty of the people as a whole to determine the forms of their own government, to levy their own taxes, and to make their own laws.... There was second, the liberty of the individual man to live his own life, within the limits of decency and decorum, as he pleased -- freedom from the despotism of the majority.

Christian endeavor is notoriously hard on female pulchritude.

The essential dilemma of education is to be found in the fact that the sort of man (or woman) who knows a given subject sufficiently well to teach it is usually unwilling to do so.

The Public ... demands certainties ... But there are not certainties

It is more blessed to give than receive; for example, wedding presents.

Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone might be looking.

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

Democracy is grounded upon so childish a complex of fallacies that they must be protected by a rigid system of taboos, else even halfwits would argue it to pieces. Its first concern must be to penalize the free play of ideas.