Quotes from H.L. Mencken

É o verme que somos convidados a defender como o favorito de Deus na Terra, com todos os seus milhões de quadrúpedes muito mais bravos, nobres e decentes — seus soberbos leões, seus ágeis e galantes leopardos, seus imperiais elefantes, seus fiéis cães, seus corajosos ratos. O homem é o inseto a que nos imploram, depois de infinitos problemas, trabalho e despesas, reproduzir.

I'd rather have written any symphony of Brahms' than any play of Ibsen's.

Politics under democracy consists almost wholly of the discovery, chase and scotching of bugaboos.The statesman becomes, in the last analysis, a mere witch-hunter, a glorified smeller and snooper, eternally chanting 'Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum!

The chief knowledge that a man gets from reading books is the knowledge that very few of them are worth reading.

Per ogni problema complesso vi è una soluzione semplice. Ed è sempre sbagliata

I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant.

Happiness is the china shop love is the bull.

A man who can laugh, if only at himself, is never really miserable.

All poetry is simply an escape from reality. It says what is palpably not true. The only difference between poets is a difference in the kind of escape they crave. Some are content with visions of a pretty girl who is also a good cook and pays for the marketing out of her own funds; others demand the insane consolations of metaphysics, or the hiding-place of a jargon no one can understand.

On one issue, at least, men and women agree: they both distrust women.

Indeed, it may be said with some confidence that the average man never really thinks from end to end of his life. There are moments when his cogitations are relatively more respectable than usual, but even at their climaxes they never reach anything properly describable as the level of serious thought. The mental activity of such people is only a mounting of clichés.

The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it's good-by to the Bill of Rights

To be in love is merely to be In a state of perpetual anesthesia: To mistake an ordinary young man for a Greek god Or an ordinary young woman for a goddess.

The Christian always mixes prudence with his devotion. He is willing to serve three gods, but draws the line at one wife.

Many a time I have seen my mother leap up from the dinner table to engage the swarming flies with an improvised punkah, and heard her rejoice and give humble thanks simultaneously that Baltimore was not the sinkhole that Washington was.

No matter how much a woman loved a man, it would still give her a glow to see him commit suicide for her.

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.

An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.

For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing.

For every human problem, there is a neat, simple solution and it is always wrong

For it is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together. Our friends seldom profit us but they make us feel safe... Marriage is a scheme to accomplish exactly that same end.

JUDGE, n A law student who marks his own papers.

Man is never honestly the fatalist, nor even the stoic. He fights his fate, often desperately. He is forever entering bold exceptions to the rulings of the bench of gods. This fighting, no doubt, makes for human progress, for it favors the strong and the brave. It also makes for beauty, for lesser men try to escape from a hopeless and intolerable world by creating a more lovely one of their own.

Never let your inferiors do you a favor - it will be extremely costly.