H. L. Mencken Quotes

One of the prerogatives by which man is eminently distinguished from all other living beings inhabiting this globe of earth, consists in the gift of reason.

Talent, lying in the understanding, is often inherited; genius, being the action of reason or imagination, rarely or never.

The Bulk of mankind is as well equipped for flying as thinking.

My IQ for the game is very high. I think that will help me out a lot.

I want to prove to other people that I have something in my mind and intellectual qualities, not just the ability to play football.

Most people can't think, most of the remainder won't think, and the small fraction who do think mostly can't do it very well.

Dull minds are never either intuitive or mathematical.

Intelligence is a critical thing.

You know very well that I no longer think. I am far too intelligent for that.

I have a massive divide between being a competent human being and being completely hopeless, when it comes to logic.

Man's greatness lies in his power of thought.

Though man a thinking being is defined, Few use the grand prerogative of mind. How few think justly of the thinking few! How many never think, who think they do!

Indeed, if a chief question does remain: how is the power to think possible? - The power to think right and left, before and without, with and above experience? then it does not take a deduction to prove the genealogical priority of language.

[Warren] Harding is incapable of thought, because he has nothing to think with.

There are a lot of men who like women with a brain.

Intelligence is an extremely subtle concept. It's a kind of understanding that flourishes if it's combined with a good memory, but exists anyway even in the absence of good memory. It's the ability to draw consequences from causes, to make correct inferences, to foresee what might be the result, to work out logical problems, to be reasonable, rational, to have the ability to understand the solution from perhaps insufficient information. You know when a person is intelligent, but you can be easily fooled if you are not yourself intelligent.

Sometimes, an actress maybe knows how to think.

In the make-up of human beings, intelligence counts for more than our hands, and that is our true strength.

Intelligence is the ability to solve problems

Always it is thus with my new students, and especially with the human ones; the mind is the last muscle they train or use, and the one that they regard the least. Ask them about swordplay and they can list every blow from a duel a month old, but ask them to solve a problem or make a coherent statement and... well, I would be lucky to get more than a blank stare in return.

Although I am not stupid, the mathematical side of my brain is like dumb notes upon a damaged piano.

There are perhaps 5% of the population that simply can't think. There are another 5% who can, and do. The remaining 90% can think, but don't

Thinking clearly and effectively is the greatest asset of any human being. We are constantly reminded that the one superiority that man has over other animals is the ability to think. It is primarily our ability to think that sets us apart from other animals.

The thing that is probably most important is having a brain, and to be able to figure things out and learn things very rapidly.

There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.