H. L. Mencken Quotes

I take statements that portray untrue statements about me seriously.

There have already been published by the bucketsful such brazen lies and utter fictions about me that I would long since have gone to my grave if I had allowed myself to pay attention to them.

When people write lies about you, and you know that they are lies, that means that they don't know the truth, so that's OK with me. If something true came out, I would have to check my circle to see who's talking and possibly make an apology phone call to my parents!

I don't mind what people say about me as long as it's an opinion or the truth. If someone says, 'He's the worst comedian in the world,' that's fine. If someone says, 'His face makes me want to punch the TV,' that's fine. But if they say, 'Oh, and I know for a fact he hunts squirrels,' I go: no, no, no... that's a lie.

You can call me a fat, balding, talentless old queen who can't sing, but you can't tell lies about me.

I would gladly chastise those who represent things as different from what they are. Those who steal property or make counterfeit money are punished, and those ought to be still more severely dealt with who steal away or falsify the good name of a prince.

I will not lie to you. These false attacks are absolutely hurtful.

I've wrongly been called sick by newspapers and magazines throughout my entire career.

There have been so many false things written about me by people who don't know me.

and a charge of lying against someone whom you have always found truthful is a very serious thing; a very serious thing indeed.

You can say or write anything about me you like. Just don't, for any reason, ever tell the truth.

In the last few days, I have been the victim of a campaign of slander and shameful lies, a campaign which has deeply shocked and hurt me. Enough is enough.

To be lied about, to be slandered, to be smeared so publicly, and before your family that you love, is very painful.

I was accused of every monstrous vice by public rumour and private rancour; my name, which had been a knightly or noble one, was tainted. I felt that, if what was whispered, and muttered, and murmured, was true, I was unfit for England; if false, England was unfit for me.

I have no problem with being vetted. What I do have a problem with is being lied about and then putting that as truth.

Those that are goofy enough to believe the outrageous lies and hate spewed about me in the mind-numb media are inconsequential and pathetic. Those that know me are certain of my goodness and connect with me deeply.

I don't mind what the opposition say of me so long as they don't tell the truth about me. But when they descend to telling the truth about me I consider that this is taking an unfair advantage.

It is perfectly monstrous,' he said, at last, 'the way people go about nowadays saying things against one behind one's back that are absolutely and entirely true.

If you think somebody is telling a big lie about you, the only way to answer is with the whole truth.

A man's reputation is not in his own keeping, but lies at the mercy of the profligacy of others. Calumny requires no proof.

The man that dares traduce, because he can with safety to himself, is not a man.

But silence never shows itself to so great an advantage, as when it is made the reply to calumny and defamation, provided that we give no just occasion for them.

Lying can never save us from another lie.

I have one major problem with the internet: It's full of liars. There doesn't seem to be any way to answer to people lying about you.

I exaggerate when I'm angry, but I've never gone around telling people things that aren't true about me.