Quotes from H. L. Mencken

Love is the mistaken belief that one woman differs from another.

The lunatic fringe wags the underdog.

When a new source of taxation is found it never means, in practice, that an old source is abandoned. It merely means that the politicians have two ways of milking the taxpayer where they had only one before.

The allurement that women hold out to men is precisely the allurement that Cape Hatteras holds out to sailors: they are enormously dangerous and hence enormously fascinating.

The opera…is to music what a bawdy house is to a cathedral.

During many a single week, I daresay, more money is spent in New York upon useless and evil things than would suffice to run the kingdom of Denmark for a year.

A man's satisfaction with his salary depends on whether he makes more than his wife's sister's husband.

But the whole thing, after all, may be put very simply. I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.

Have you ever watched a crab on the shore crawling backward in search of the Atlantic Ocean, and missing? That's the way the mind of man operates.

There is reinforcement in such familiar back-formations as Chinee from Chinese, Portugee from Portuguese.

Qualsiasi persona normale di tanto in tanto prova la tentazione di sputarsi nelle mani, issare la bandiera nera e cominciare a tagliare le gole.

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

It 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.

I]f a current president of Harvard were to preach the theology of Increase Mather he would be locked up as a lunatic, though he is still free (and expected) to merchant the prevailing political balderdash. Save among politicians it is no longer necessary for any educated American to profess belief in Thirteenth Century ideas.

Love is like war easy to begin but very hard to stop.

Once a woman passes a certain point in intelligence she finds it almost impossible to get a husband: she simply cannot go on listening without snickering.

A consciência é uma voz interior que nos adverte de que alguém pode estar olhando

Os homens são os únicos animais que se devotam diariamente a tornar os outros infelizes. É uma arte como outra qualquer. Seus virtuoses são chamados de altruístas

O amor é a ilusão de que uma mulher difere da outra

Não importa o quanto uma mulher seja feliz no casamento. Sempre lhe agradará saber que há um sujeito simpatico e atraente desejando que ela não fosse

A democracia é a arte e ciência de administrar o circo a partir da jaula dos macacos

Pode ser um pecado pensar mal dos outros, mas raramente sera um engano

O pior governo é o mais moral. Um governo composto de cínicos é frequentemente mais tolerante e humano. Mas, quando os fanáticos tomam o poder, não há limite para a opressão

Importuna coisa é a felicidade alheia quando somos vítima de algum infortúnio