Quotes from H. L. Mencken

Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages.

In war the heroes always outnumber the soldiers ten to one.

Men are the only animals that devote themselves, day in and day out, to making one another unhappy. It is an art like any other. Its virtuosi are called altruists.

History deals mainly with captains and kings, gods and prophets, exploiters and despoilers, not with useful men.

The difference between the smartest dog and the stupidest man - say a Tennessee Holy Roller - is really very small.

Man, at his best, remains a sort of one-lunged animal, never completely rounded and perfect, as a cockroach, say, is perfect.

No sane man objects to palpable lies about him; what he objects to is damaging facts.

The prophesying business is like writing fugues; it is fatal to every one save the man of absolute genius.

Happiness is peace after strife, the overcoming of difficulties, the feeling of security and well-being. The only really happy folk are married women and single men.

The life of man in this world is like the life of a fly in a room filled with 100 boys, each armed with a fly-swatter.

A wealthy man is one who earns $100 a year more than his wife's sister's husband.

It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.

The great difficulty about keeping the Ten Commandments is that no man can keep them and be a gentleman.

The real man lies in the depths of subconscious.

Never argue with a man whose job depends on not being convinced.

If what I may believe - about gall-stones, the Constitution, castor oil, or God - is conditioned by law, then I am not a free man.

Experience is a poor guide to man, and is seldom followed. What really teaches a man is not experience, but observation.

No man ever quite believes in any other man. One may believe in an idea absolutely, but not in a man.

There comes a time in every man's life when he's consumed by the desire to spit on his palms, hoist the black flag and start cutting throats.

No man of honor ever quite lives up to his code, any more than a moral man manages to avoid sin.

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

Some immemorial imbecilities have been added deliberately, on the ground that it is just as interesting to note how foolish men have been as to note how wise they have been.

The essential dilemma of education is to be found in the fact that the sort of man (or woman) who knows a given subject sufficiently well to teach it is usually unwilling to do so.

If I had my way, any man guilty of golf would be ineligible for any office of trust in the United States.