Quotes by Henry Louis Mencken with democracy

Henry Louis Mencken

Henry Louis Mencken

American journalist and critic

Lived from: 1880 - 1956

Category: Media Country: FlagUnited States

Born: 12 september 1880 Died: 29 january 1956

  • Lying is not only excusable; it is not only innocent; it is, above all, necessary and unavoidable. Without the ameliorations that it offers, life would become a mere syllogism and hence too metallic to be borne.
  • A bachelor is one who wants a wife, but is glad he hasn't got her.
  • Men have a much better time of it than women. For one thing, they marry later, for another thing, they die earlier.
  • A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.
  • Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping and unintelligent.
  • The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear - fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety.
  • A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier.
  • All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.
  • 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.
  • The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal.
  • 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.
  • The chief knowledge that a man gets from reading books is the knowledge that very few of them are worth reading.
  • There are two kinds of books. Those that no one reads and those that no one ought to read.
  • The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it.
  • On one issue at least, men and women agree; they both distrust women.
  • Time stays, we go.
  • One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms. It is not only more effective; it is also vastly more intelligent.
  • It is impossible to believe that the same God who permitted His own son to die a bachelor regards celibacy as an actual sin.
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  • Adultery is the application of democracy to love.
    ― Henry Louis Mencken
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  • Democracy is the theory that the common people know what They want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
    ― Henry Louis Mencken
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  • Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.
    ― Henry Louis Mencken
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  • Democracy is also a form of religion. It is the worship of jackals by jackasses.
    ― Henry Louis Mencken
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  • Democracy is only a dream: it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven.
    ― Henry Louis Mencken
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  • Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.
    ― Henry Louis Mencken
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  • I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing.
    ― Henry Louis Mencken
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  • The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
    ― Henry Louis Mencken
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Questions and Answers

What are the most famous quotes from Henry Louis Mencken?

The two most famous quotes from Henry Louis Mencken are:

  • "Adultery is the application of democracy to love."
  • "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what They want, and deserve to get it good and hard."

When did Henry Louis Mencken live?

Henry Louis Mencken was born in 1880 and died in the year 1956.