H. L. Mencken Quotes
Platitude: an idea (a) that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b) that is not true.
Mencken, H. L. A Little Book in C Major. John Lane Company, 1916, p. 15.
In the 1912 Republican convention both the Taft and the Roosevelt camps claimed a majority of forty delegates. A reporter asked Depew what he thought of the situation.
After the Constitution had been ratified, there was a concerted attempt on the part of the Southern Slave States to minimize the importance of the Declaration of Independence. They feared that the equality principle in the Declaration should be seen by Americans as desirable policy which clearly meant slavery was untenable. There were three approaches all used by the Southerners. First, they tried to make it clear that the Declaration had no weight in American law or moral principles as it was superseded by the Constitution. Second, they claimed that it could only have applied to white men as Black males were not really men. Third, that the statement was patently false. This quotation illustrates the latter.
Henry Louis Mencken was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, and contemporary movements. His satirical reporting on the Scopes Trial, which he dubbed the "Monkey Trial," also gained him attention.
