Man is a beautiful machine that works very badly.

Quote by H L Mencken

Topics: H L Mencken Quotes

A national political campaign is better than the best circus ever heard of, with a...

A national political campaign is better than the best circus ever heard of, with a...

Women have simple tastes. They get pleasure out of the conversation of children in arms...

Women have simple tastes. They get pleasure out of the conversation of children in arms...

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

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

I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough...

I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough...

What men value in this world is not rights but privileges.

What men value in this world is not rights but privileges.

I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing.

I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing.

Platitude: an idea (a) that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b) that...

Platitude: an idea (a) that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b) that...

Every man sees in his relatives, and especially in his cousins, a series of grotesque...

Every man sees in his relatives, and especially in his cousins, a series of grotesque...

No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the...

No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the...

Life is a constant oscillation between the sharp horns of dilemmas.

Life is a constant oscillation between the sharp horns of dilemmas.

Life is a dead-end street.

Life is a dead-end street.

To be in love is merely to be in a perpetual state of anesthesia.

To be in love is merely to be in a perpetual state of anesthesia.

It doesn't take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined...

It doesn't take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined...

Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone might be looking.

Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone might be looking.

Communism, like any other revealed religion, is largely made up of prophecies.

Communism, like any other revealed religion, is largely made up of prophecies.

For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.

For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.

Historian: an unsuccessful novelist.

Historian: an unsuccessful novelist.

I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs.

I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs.

When a new source of taxation is found it never means, in practice, that the...

When a new source of taxation is found it never means, in practice, that the...

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous...

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous...