Free speech is too dangerous to a democracy to be permitted.
H. L. MENCKENFree speech is too dangerous to a democracy to be permitted.
H. L. MENCKENPuritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
H. L. MENCKENA church is a place in which gentlemen who have never been to Heaven brag about it to persons who will never get there.
H. L. MENCKENThe chief difference between free capitalism and State socialism seems to be this: that under the former a man pursues his own advantage openly, frankly and honestly, whereas under the latter he does so hypocritically and under false pretenses.
H. L. MENCKENThe aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.
H. L. MENCKENMisogynist: A man who hates women as much as women hate one another.
H. L. MENCKENThere are two kinds of Europeans: The smart ones, and those who stayed behind.
H. L. MENCKENMorality is doing what is right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right.
H. L. MENCKENThe only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it’s good-bye to the Bill of Rights.
H. L. MENCKENEvery normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
H. L. MENCKENThe central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
H. L. MENCKENChange is not progress.
H. L. MENCKENA cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.
H. L. MENCKENEvery decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
H. L. MENCKENIt is the classic fallacy of our time that a moron run through a university and decorated with a Ph.D. will thereby cease to be a moron.
H. L. MENCKENThe kind of man who demands that government enforce his ideas is always the kind whose ideas are idiotic.
H. L. MENCKEN