The Unnamable
01-28-2006, 07:02 AM
How is Mencken viewed in his native land? I think he’s remarkable. Does he get the credit he deserves over there? His shrewdness is astounding at times and he seems to have been fully aware of the destination of American democracy long before it became fashionable to make jokes about the stupidity of presidents:
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
The Baltimore Evening Sun , July 26, 1920
He was of German descent and hated many things, not least the belief in any kind of god.
Some of his most famous and memorable comments are extremely funny but often disliked for cynicism. Mencken himself said, “A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.”
Here are a few others:
Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.
It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.
Misogynist: A man who hates women as much as women hate one another.
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.
We are here and it is now. Further than that all human knowledge is moonshine.
The fact that I have no remedy for all the sorrows of the world is no reason for my accepting yours. It simply supports the strong probability that yours is a fake.
Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.
Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. –I think that was written in the 1920s.
The men that American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest the most violently are those who try to tell them the truth. Come on, you must see some validity in that one.
An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.
And my favourite:
Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another.
There is an interesting and well-written piece on Mencken by Gore Vidal at http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/mencken.htm
Vidal said about Mencken, “He revelled in absurdity; found no bonnet entirely bee-less.”
You can find out more about him at http://www.answers.com/topic/h-l-mencken
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
The Baltimore Evening Sun , July 26, 1920
He was of German descent and hated many things, not least the belief in any kind of god.
Some of his most famous and memorable comments are extremely funny but often disliked for cynicism. Mencken himself said, “A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.”
Here are a few others:
Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.
It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.
Misogynist: A man who hates women as much as women hate one another.
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.
We are here and it is now. Further than that all human knowledge is moonshine.
The fact that I have no remedy for all the sorrows of the world is no reason for my accepting yours. It simply supports the strong probability that yours is a fake.
Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.
Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. –I think that was written in the 1920s.
The men that American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest the most violently are those who try to tell them the truth. Come on, you must see some validity in that one.
An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.
And my favourite:
Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another.
There is an interesting and well-written piece on Mencken by Gore Vidal at http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/mencken.htm
Vidal said about Mencken, “He revelled in absurdity; found no bonnet entirely bee-less.”
You can find out more about him at http://www.answers.com/topic/h-l-mencken