H. L. Mencken


[On Shakespeare] After all, all he did was string together a lot of old, well-known quotations.

     College football is a game which would be much more interesting if the faculty played instead of the students, and even more interesting if the trustees played. There would be a great increase in broken arms, legs, and necks, and simultaneously an appreciable diminution in the loss to humanity.

     Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody is looking

     Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses.

     For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.

     Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.

     No one has yet presented a single scrap of creditable evidence to support the proposition that life should be taken seriously.

     Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages.