The New Deal began, like the Salvation Army, by promising to save humanity. It ended, again like the Salvation Army, by running flop-houses and disturbing the peace.
Henry Louis Mencken Quotes
The human race is in such a dreadful state that no rational person can talk about it without resorting to seditious and obscene language.
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.
A great nation is any mob of people which produces at least one honest man a century.
As a means of kidding (poet Harry) Kemp, (George) Nathan and I pretended to a vast interest in (Greenwich) Village, and one day asked him to take us there and show us the sights. He accepted eagerly, and we walked all the way from 331 Fourth Avenue. Whenever he pointed out a celebrity – we […]
A home is not a mere transient shelter: its essence lies in the personalities of the people who live in it.
History deals mainly with captains and kings, gods and prophets, exploiters and despoilers, not with useful men.
Legend: a lie that has attained the dignity of age.
It is a peculiarity of the American mind that it regards any excursion into the truth as an adventure into cynicism.
A fool who, after plain warning, persists in dosing himself with dangerous drugs should be free to do so, for his death is a benefit to the race in general.
