Home / Quotes / Quote by H. L. Mencken

Quote by H. L. Mencken

“Every step in human progress, from the first feeble stirrings in the abyss of time, has been opposed by the great majority of men. Every valuable thing that has been added to the store of man's possessions has been derided by them when it was new, and destroyed by them when they had the power. They have fought every new truth ever heard of, and they have killed every truth-seeker who got into their hands.”

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

You May Also Like

“No man ever quite believes in any other man.”

Men Believe Quitting

Book:Mencken Chrestomathy

Source: Mencken Chrestomathy

“We must think of human progress, not as of something going on in the race in general, but as something going on in a small minority, perpetually beleaguered in a few walled towns. Now and then the horde of barbarians outside breaks through, and we have an armed effort to halt the process. That is, we have a Reformation, a French Revolution, a war for democracy, a Great Awakening. The minority is decimated and driven to cover. But a few survive- and a few are enough to carry on.”

“All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them.”

Men Humans Has Beens Values Moral Progress Society Currents Skeptic Doubted Human Progress Moral Values Uncivilized

Book:Minority Report

Source: Minority Report

“It seems to me that a great university ought to have room in it for men subscribing to every sort of idea that is currently prevalent”

Men Ideas Seems Rooms Ought University

Author:H. L. Mencken

“The best years are the forties; after fifty a man begins to deteriorate, but in the forties he is at the maximum of his villainy.”

Men Years Fifty Forty Maximum Best Year Villainy

Author:H. L. Mencken

“The artist is not a reporter, but a Great Teacher. It is not his business to depict the world as it is, but as it ought to be.”

World Artist Teacher Ought Reporters Great Teacher

Book:PREJUDICES A SELECTION

Source: PREJUDICES A SELECTION

“The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal. Some of their most esteemed inventions have no other apparent purpose - for example, the dinner party of more than two, the epic poem, and the science of metaphysics.”

Humans Two Humor Seems Funny Purpose Human Beings Animal Party Greater Example Capacity Dinner Invention Boredom Bores Epic Metaphysics Dinner Party Epic Poems

Book:Minority Report

Source: Minority Report

“A bad artist almost always tries to conceal his incompetence by whooping up a new formula.”

Trying Artist Formulas Competence Incompetence

Book:Mencken Chrestomathy

Source: Mencken Chrestomathy

“The plain people, hereafter as in the past, will continue to make their own language, and the best that grammarians can do is to follow after it, haltingly, and not often with much insight into it.”

People Past Language Can Do Insight Hereafter

Book:the American Language

Source: the American Language

“The physical business of writing is unpleasant to me, but the psychic satisfaction of discharging bad ideas in worse English makes me forget it.”

Writing Ideas Forget Satisfaction Psychics Forget It Bad Ideas

Author:H. L. Mencken