H. L. Mencken Quotes

In my youth it was said that what was too silly to be said may be sung. In modern economics it may be put into mathematics.

Youth has a quickness of apprehension, which it is very apt to mistake for an acuteness of penetration.

A young fellow ought to be wiser than he should seem to be; and an old fellow ought to seem wise whether he really be so or not.

I may die young, but at least I'll die smart.

Just as a physicist has to examine the telescope and galvanometer with which he is working; has to get a clear conception of what he can attain with them, and how they may deceive him; so, too, it seemed to me necessary to investigate likewise the capabilities of our power of thought.

It is not the feeling sure of a doctrine (be it what it may) which I call an assumption of infallibility. It is the undertaking to decide that question for others, without allowing them to hear what can be said on the contrary side. And I denounce and reprobate this pretension not the less, if put forth on the side of my most solemn convictions.

You just had to know where to look.

Different ‘philosophies’ represent nothing but methods of evaluation, which may lead to empirical mis-evaluation if science and empirical facts are disregarded.

Universal education has created an immense class of what I may call the New Stupid, hungering for certainty yet unable to find it in the traditional myths and their rationalizations.

I don't read such small stuff as letters, I read men and nations. I can see through a millstone, though I can't see through a spelling-book. What a narrow idea a reading qualification is for a voter!

Whatever your career may be, do not let yourselves become tainted by a deprecating and barren scepticism.

There are those who scoff at the schoolboy, calling him frivolous and shallow: Yet it was the schoolboy who said 'Faith is believing what you know ain't so'.

I have all my life been on my guard against the information conveyed by the sense of hearing -- it being one of my earliest observations, the universal inclination of humankind is to be led by the ears, and I am sometimes apt to imagine that they are given to men as they are to pitchers, purposely that they may be carried about by them.

May God us keep From Single vision and Newton's sleep.

Always scorn appearances and you always may.

The thinking that guides your intelligence is much more important than how much intelligence you may have.

I admit that some of my ideas may have turned out to be pessimistic in nature.

To the young I should offer two maxims: Don't accept superficial solutions of difficult problems. It is better to do a little good than much harm. I should not offer anything more specific; every young person should decide on his or her own credo.

I propose to beg no question to shrink from no conclusion, but to follow truth wherever it may lead.

A thought may be very commendable as a thought, but I value it chiefly as a window through which I can obtain insight on the thinker.

Old fools are greater fools than young ones.

It is precisely because it is fashionable for Americans to know no science, even though they may be well educated otherwise, that they so easily fall prey to nonsense.

Let us have an education, that shall practically develop our thinking faculties and manhood; and then, and only then, shall we be able to vie with our oppressors, go where we may . . .

In the future, how we educate our children may prove to be more important than how much we educate them.

Whenever we meet anyone, our first, almost unconscious reaction may be to look for imperfections.