Portable Wisdom

Author: H. L. Mencken

Brief Info: American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English

Years Lived: 1880-1956

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Quotations


We Must Respect the Other Fellow's Religion

We must respect the other fellow’s religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.

From the book Minority Report : H.L. Mencken”s Notebooks

— 1956


Every Third American

We are, in fact, a nation of evangelists; every third American devotes himself to improving and lifting up his fellow citizens, usually by force; the messianic delusion is our national disease.

From the book Prejudices: First Series

— 1919


Easy Solutions

There is always an easy solution to every human problem – neat, plausible and wrong.

From Prejudices: Second Series

— 1920

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