H. L. Mencken quotes

H. L. Mencken was an influential American journalist, essayist, and cultural critic, celebrated for his wit and sharp social commentary. His writings challenged popular beliefs and authority figures in early 20th-century America. He is remembered today as one of the most incisive critics of American culture and language. Here are 458 of his quotes:

A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.

H. L. Mencken

Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

H. L. Mencken

Men have a much better time of it than women. For one thing, they marry later; for another thing, they die earlier.

H. L. Mencken

Wealth - any income that is at least one hundred dollars more a year than the income of one's wife's sister's husband.

H. L. Mencken

Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.

H. L. Mencken

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

H. L. Mencken

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

H. L. Mencken

It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.

H. L. Mencken

Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another.

H. L. Mencken

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

H. L. Mencken

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.

H. L. Mencken

Theology --An effort to explain the unknowable by putting it into terms of the not worth knowing.

H. L. Mencken

Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.

H. L. Mencken

Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.

H. L. Mencken

Creator - A comedian whose audience is afraid to laugh.

H. L. Mencken

The only really happy folk are married women and single men.

H. L. Mencken

Misogynist - A man who hates women as much as women hate one another.

H. L. Mencken

We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.

H. L. Mencken

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

H. L. Mencken

Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time.

H. L. Mencken

No matter how happily a woman may be married, it always pleases her to discover that there is a nice man who wishes that she were not.

H. L. Mencken

Truth - Something somehow discreditable to someone.

H. L. Mencken