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Quote by H. L. Mencken

“Debussy--A pretty girl with one blue eye and one brown one.”

Quote by H. L. Mencken

Author

H. L. Mencken was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. Born on September 12, 1880, and passing away on January 29, 1956, Mencken is renowned for his significant contributions to American culture and language, particularly through his satirical essays and critical analyses of the American establishment. more

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“Chopin--Two embalmers at work upon a minor poetthe scent of tuberosesAutumn rain.”

Two Music Musician Rain Minors Scent

Author:H. L. Mencken

“Happiness is peace after strife, the overcoming of difficulties, the feeling of security and well-being. The only really happy folk are married women and single men.”

Men Wells Feelings Happiness Marriage Security Married Overcoming Difficulty Folks Well Being Strife Really Happy Single Man Married Women

Author:H. L. Mencken

“Friendship is a common belief in the same fallacies, mountebanks and hobgoblins.”

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Book:Mencken Chrestomathy

Source: Mencken Chrestomathy

“Some time ago a publisher told me that there are four kinds of books that seldom, if ever, lose money in the United States--first,murder stories; secondly, novels in which the heroine is forcibly overcome by the hero; thirdly, volumes on spiritualism, occultism and other such claptrap, and fourthly, books on Lincoln.”

Ifs Firsts Kind Book States Stories Loses United United States Novel Four Hero Overcoming Murder Volume Publishers Heroines Spiritualism

Book:Mencken Chrestomathy

Source: Mencken Chrestomathy

“What makes philosophy so tedious is not the profundity of philosophers, but their lack of art; they are like physicians who soughtto cure a slight hyperacidity by prescribing a carload of burned oyster-shells.”

Art Philosophy Philosophical Philosopher Cures Burned Shells Physicians Tedious Oysters Profundity Prescribing

Book:Mencken Chrestomathy

Source: Mencken Chrestomathy

“The life of man in this world is like the life of a fly in a room filled with 100 boys, each armed with a fly-swatter.”

Men World Rooms Boys This World Philosophical Filled

Author:H. L. Mencken

“Philosophy, as the modern world knows it, is only intellectual club-swinging.”

Knows World Philosophy Modern Intellectual Philosophical Clubs Modern World

Book:Mencken Chrestomathy

Source: Mencken Chrestomathy

“Nietzsche, to the end of his days, remained a Russian pastor's son, and hence two-thirds of a Puritan; he erected his war upon holiness, toward the end, into a sort of holy war.”

Two War Ends Son Holy Thirds Philosophical Holiness Pastor Puritan Holy War

Author:H. L. Mencken

“It is almost as safe to assume that an artist of any dignity is against his country, i.e., against the environment in which God hath placed him, as it is to assume that his country is against the artist.”

Art Country Artist Environment Society Safe Dignity Assuming

Book:Mencken Chrestomathy

Source: Mencken Chrestomathy

“Setting aside the vast herd which shows no definable character at all, it seems to me that the minority distinguished by what is commonly regarded as an excess of sin is very much more admirable than the minority distinguished by an excess of virtue. My experience of the world has taught me that the average wine-bibbler is a far better fellow than the average prohibitionist, and that the average rogue is better company than the average poor drudge, and that the worst white-slave trader of my acquaintance is a decenter man than the best vice crusader.”