Henry Louis Mencken Quotes

A poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child.

The word wowser… means one who devotes himself to interfering with the private pleasures of his fellow-men.

Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.

The truth that survives is simply the lie that is pleasantest to believe.

The ideal state for a philosopher, indeed, is celibacy tempered by polygamy.

There is no record in history of a happy philosopher.

Philosophy consists very largely of one philosopher arguing that all other philosophers are jackasses. He usually proves it, and I should add that he also usually proves that he is one himself.

Philosophy first constructs a scheme of happiness and then tries to fit the world to it.

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

The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.