H. L. Mencken Zitate auf Englisch

Seite 3

In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.

H. L. Mencken

Most people want security in this world, not liberty.

H. L. Mencken

The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.

H. L. Mencken

Man is always looking for someone to boast to; woman is always looking for a shoulder to put her head on.

H. L. Mencken

Every man is his own hell.

H. L. Mencken

Self-respect: the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious.

H. L. Mencken

Temptation is a woman's weapon and man's excuse.

H. L. Mencken

Judge: a law student who marks his own examination-papers.

H. L. Mencken

Whenever a husband and wife begin to discuss their marriage they are giving evidence at a coroner's inquest.

H. L. Mencken

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.

H. L. Mencken

I write in order to attain that feeling of tension relieved and function achieved which a cow enjoys on giving milk.

H. L. Mencken

Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sign that he expects to be paid for it.

H. L. Mencken

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

H. L. Mencken

Before a man speaks it is always safe to assume that he is a fool. After he speaks, it is seldom necessary to assume it.

H. L. Mencken

Time stays, we go.

H. L. Mencken

Communism, like any other revealed religion, is largely made up of prophecies.

H. L. Mencken

All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.

H. L. Mencken

Man is a beautiful machine that works very badly.

H. L. Mencken

Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.

H. L. Mencken

Most people are unable to write because they are unable to think, and they are unable to think because they congenitally lack the equipment to do so, just as they congenitally lack the equipment to fly over the moon.

H. L. Mencken

I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs.

H. L. Mencken

The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God's children, but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil.

H. L. Mencken

Poetry has done enough when it charms, but prose must also convince.

H. L. Mencken

A national political campaign is better than the best circus ever heard of, with a mass baptism and a couple of hangings thrown in.

H. L. Mencken

Platitude: an idea (a) that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b) that is not true.

H. L. Mencken

If women believed in their husbands they would be a good deal happier and also a good deal more foolish.

H. L. Mencken

It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.

H. L. Mencken

All government, of course, is against liberty.

H. L. Mencken

The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal.

H. L. Mencken

Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.

H. L. Mencken

Man weeps to think that he will die so soon; woman, that she was born so long ago.

H. L. Mencken

If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.

H. L. Mencken

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

H. L. Mencken

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

H. L. Mencken

I never smoked a cigarette until I was nine.

H. L. Mencken

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.

H. L. Mencken