Every great wave of popular passion that rolls up on the prairies is dashed to spray when it strikes the hard rocks of Manhattan.

— H.L. Mencken

Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.

— H.L. Mencken

Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong.

— H.L. Mencken

Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.

— H.L. Mencken

Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.

— H.L. Mencken

Government today is growing too strong to be safe. There are no longer any citizens in the world there are only subjects. They work day in and day out for their masters they are bound to die for their masters at call. Out of this working and dying they tend to get less and less.

— H.L. Mencken

Happiness is the china shop love is the bull.

— H.L. Mencken

He sees daily evidence that many things held to be true by nine-tenths of all men are, in reality, false, and he is thereby apt to acquire a doubt of everything, including his own beliefs.

— H.L. Mencken

Historian: an unsuccessful novelist.

— H.L. Mencken

I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant.

— H.L. Mencken