Monday, August 3, 2015

H.L. Mencken, philosopher, genius

All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.

Platitude: an idea (a) that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b) that is not true.

A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground.

The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.

A celebrity is one who is known to many persons he is glad he doesn't know.

God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamoring to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.

A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier.

Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.

Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution?

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.