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H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series

Book by H. L. Mencken · 5 quotes · Men, Literature, American Literature

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H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series Quotes

“Here is one of the fundamental defects of American fiction--perhaps the one character that sets it off sharply from all other known kinds of contemporary fiction. It habitually exhibits, not a man of delicate organization in revolt against the inexplicable tragedy of existence, but a man of low sensibilities and elemental desires yielding himself gladly to his environment, and so achieving what, under a third-rate civilization, passes for success. To get on: this is the aim. To weigh and reflect, to doubt and rebel: this is the thing to be avoided.”

MenKindCharacterDesireLiteratureExistenceFictionKnownDoubtEnvironmentAchieveCivilizationLowsOrganizationThirdsTragedyAimFundamentalsRateContemporaryRebelDelicateSensibilityDefectsAvoidedRevoltExhibitsInexplicableContemporary FictionElementalsAmerican Literature
Book:H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series
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“The aim of poetry, it appears, is to fill the mind with lofty thoughts--not to give it joy, but to give it a grand and somewhat gaudy sense of virtue. The essay is a weapon against the degenerate tendencies of the age. The novel, properly conceived, is a means of uplifting the spirit; its aim is to inspire, not merely to satisfy the low curiosity of man in man.”

MenGivingMindMeanAgeJoySpiritLiteratureNovelVirtueInspireWeaponsLowsAimCuriosityTendenciesUpliftingEssaysLoftyDegeneratesAmerican LiteratureGaudy
Book:H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series
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“As if paralyzed by the national fear of ideas, the democratic distrust of whatever strikes beneath the prevailing platitudes, it evades all resolute and honest dealing with what, after all, must be every healthy literature's elementary materials.”

IfsIdeasLiteratureHonestMaterialsHealthyDemocraticStrikesDistrustPrevailingParalyzedResoluteAmerican LiteraturePlatitudes
Book:H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series
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“One is conscious of no brave and noble earnestness in it, of no generalized passion for intellectual and spiritual adventure, of no organized determination to think things out. What is there is a highly self-conscious and insipid correctness, a bloodless respectability submergence of matter in manner--in brief, what is there is the feeble, uninspiring quality of German painting and English music.”

ThinkingSelfMatterSpiritualPassionLiteratureQualityPaintingAdventureIntellectualConsciousDeterminationBraveNobleOrganizedSelf ConsciousCorrectnessRespectabilityAmerican LiteratureEarnestnessInsipidUninspiringEnglish Music
Book:H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series
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