H. L. Mencken quotes

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Poetry has done enough when it charms, but prose must also convince.
H. L. Mencken
Poetry
Prose
Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
H. L. Mencken
Fear
May
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.
H. L. Mencken
Humanity
Self-respect: the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious.
H. L. Mencken
Feeling
Self
The only cure for contempt is counter-contempt.
H. L. Mencken
Contempt
Cure
Temptation is a woman's weapon and man's excuse.
H. L. Mencken
Man
Temptation
Woman
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
Government
Man
The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear - fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety.
H. L. Mencken
Fear
Emotion
Inexplicable
Man
Safety
Say what you will about the ten commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.
H. L. Mencken
Fact
Will
The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.
H. L. Mencken
Age
Wisdom
Distrust
Doctrine
Temptation is an irresistible force at work on a movable body.
H. L. Mencken
Work
Body
Force
Temptation
The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.
H. L. Mencken
Mankind
Occupation
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
Act
Difference
Honor
Man
The cynics are right nine times out of ten.
H. L. Mencken
Right
The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.
H. L. Mencken
Argument
Crime
Poor
Poverty
Slander