1,045 Quotes by H. L. Mencken

Economic independence is the foundation of the only sort of freedom worth a damn

Women have a hard enough time in this world: telling them the truth would be too cruel.

In the duel of sex woman fights from a dreadnought and man from an open raft.

I have long been convinced that the idea of liberty is abhorrent to most human beings. What they want is security, not freedom. Thus it seldom causes any public indignation when an enterprising tyrant claps down on one of his enemies. To most men it seems a natural proceeding.

Immortality is the condition of a dead man who doesn't believe he is dead

The Jews fastened their religion upon the Western world, not because it was more reasonable than the religions of their contemporaries - as a matter of fact, it was vastly less reasonable than many of them - but because it was far more poetical.

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.

Religion is a conceited effort to deny the most obvious realities.

The idea that leisure is of value in itself is only conditionally true. The average man simply spends his leisure as a dog spends it. His recreations are all puerile, and the time supposed to benefit him really only stupefies him.