H. L. Mencken Quotes

Laughter is the best way to get over something or get closer to something. It's one of the things I respect most about Amy Schumer. She's found a way to get us closer to ourselves and see the ugly side of humanity, but not in a way that's pointing a finger or that's angry. She does it in a way that makes us see the absurdity and laugh at it.

I'm somebody who believes in funny things, and laughing, but I do like for them to come from a place that addresses the human condition.

The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.

I love good sense above all, perhaps because I have none.

Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar.

I don't take myself or the species too seriously. You have to laugh at everything.

Self-parody is the first portent of age.

Wise is the man who does not disdain any character and instead, examining him with a searching look, plumbs him to the very main-springs of his being.

Life is a jest; and all things show it. I thought so once; but now I know it.

I have thousands of opinions still - but that is down from millions - and, as always, I know nothing.

At the age of 60, I am less experimental and more mature. I want most of all to convey my understanding of life.

The more you find out about the world, the more opportunities there are to laugh at it.

The reason I call my book 'Irreverent' is because there were a lot of pictures that were very irreverent. Maybe I could call my book 'Forgiving' because maybe I made a lot of errors, too.

I can honestly say I love getting older. Then again, I never put my glasses on before looking in the mirror.

I know that I'm deeply, spiritually, profoundly philosophical and I also know that I'm about the flakiest person you're gonna meet.

Perhaps I'm particularly serious, because I'm not unaware of the potential absurdity of what I'm doing.

Men who know themselves are no longer fools. They stand on the threshold of the door of Wisdom.

I talked about becoming stupid, but I've always been stupid. Fortunately I've been just smart enough to realize that I'm stupid.

In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.

A man only becomes wise when he begins to calculate the approximate depth of his ignorance.

Perhaps the mission of those who love mankind is to make people laugh at the truth, to make truth laugh, because the only truth lies in learning to free ourselves from insane passion for the truth.

There's nothing wrong with being shallow as long as you're insightful about it.

We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.

I have a fine sense of the ridiculous, but no sense of humor.

Whatever you laugh at in others, laughs at yourself.