Quotes from H. L. Mencken

The cosmos is a gigantic flywheel making 10,000 revolutions per minute. Man is a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on it.

A man always blames the woman who fools him. In the same way he blames the door he walks into in the dark.

The first kiss is stolen by the man; the last is begged by the woman.

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.

Every man is his own hell.

Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in their readiness to doubt.

The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on 'I am not too sure'.

The average man never really thinks from end to end of his life. The mental activity of such people is only a mouthing of clichés.

No man is worthy of unlimited reliance-his treason, at best, only waits for sufficient temptation.

The true aim of medicine is not to make men virtuous; it is to safeguard and rescue them from the consequences of their vices. The physician does not preach repentance; he offers absolution.

I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech - alike for the humblest man and the mightiest, and in the utmost freedom of conduct that is consistent with living in organized society.

Man is a beautiful machine that works very badly.

Why do men go to zoos?

Before a man speaks it is always safe to assume that he is a fool. After he speaks, it is seldom necessary to assume it.

A woman wishes to mother a man simply because she sees into his helplessness, his need of an amiable environment, his touching self-delusion.

I know some who are constantly drunk on books as other men are drunk on whiskey.

All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him.

Any man who, having a child or children he can't support, proceeds to have another should be sterilized at once.

Men always try to make virtues of their weaknesses. Fear of death and fear of life both become piety.

Women hate revolutions and revolutionists. They like men who are docile, and well-regarded at the bank, and never late at meals.

If a sense of duty tortures a man, it also enables him to achieve prodigies.

I never agree with Communists or any other kind of kept men.

The worst of marriage is that it makes a woman believe that all men are just as easy to fool.

School teachers, taking them by and large, are probably the most ignorant and stupid class of men in the whole group of mental workers.