1,045 Quotes by H. L. Mencken

A gentlemen is one who never strikes a woman without provocation.

The essence of a sound style is that it cannot be reduced to rules-that it is a living and breathing thing with something of the devilish in it-that it fits its proprietor tightly yet ever so loosely, as his skin fits him. It is, in fact, quite as seriously an integral part of him as that skin is. . . . In brief, a style is always the outward and visible symbol of a man, and cannot be anything else.

Congress consists of one-third, more or less, scoundrels; two-thirds, more or less, idiots; and three-thirds, more or less, poltroons.

America's biggest failure is its inability to take comedy seriously.

I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.

To sum up: 1. The cosmos is a gigantic fly-wheel making 10,000 revolutions a minute. 2. Man is a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on it. 3. Religion is the theory that the wheel was designed and set spinning to give him the ride.

Science, at bottom, is really anti-intellectual. It always distrusts pure reason, and demands the production of objective fact.

Whenever "A" attempts by law to impose his moral standards upon "B," "A" is most likely a scoundrel.

Human progress is furthered, not by conformity, but by aberration.