“It costs more to maintain ten vices than one virtue.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Virtue
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“Setting aside the vast herd which shows no definable character at all, it seems to me that the minority distinguished by what is commonly regarded as an excess of sin is very much more admirable than the minority distinguished by an excess of virtue. My experience of the world has taught me that the average wine-bibbler is a far better fellow than the average prohibitionist, and that the average rogue is better company than the average poor drudge, and that the worst white-slave trader of my acquaintance is a decenter man than the best vice crusader.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Virtue
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“A bad man is the sort who weeps every time he speaks of a good woman.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Hypocrisy
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“One may no more live in the world without picking up the moral prejudices of the world than one will be able to go to hell without perspiring.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Prejudice
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“What I admire most in any man is a serene spirit, a steady freedom from moral indignation, and all-embracing tolerance–in brief, what is commonly called sportsmanship.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Tolerance
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“Sunday–A day given over by Americans to wishing that they themselves were dead and in Heaven, and that their neighbors were dead and in Hell.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Religion
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“All great religions, in order to escape absurdity, have to admit a dilution of agnosticism. It is only the savage, whether of the African bush or the American gospel tent, who pretends to know the will and intent of God exactly and completely.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Religion
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“Creator–A comedian whose audience is afraid to laugh.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Religion
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“Christian–One who is willing to serve three Gods, but draws the line at one wife.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Religion
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“The Christian always swears a bloody oath that he will never do it again. The civilized man simply resolves to be a bit more careful next time.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Religion
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“When a woman says she won’t, it’s a good sign that she will. And when she says she will, it is an even better sign.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Sex
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“At the end of one millennium and nine centuries of Christianity, it remains an unshakable assumption of the law in all Christian countries and of the moral judgment of Christians everywhere that if a man and a woman, entering a room together, close the door behind them, the man will come out sadder and the woman wiser.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Sex
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“One need not be a great beau, a seductive catch, to do it effectively. Any man is better than none. To shrink from giving so much happiness at such small expense, to evade the business on the ground that it has hazards–this is the act of a puling and tacky fellow.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Sex
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“Temptation is an irresistible force at work on a movable body.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Temptation
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“Temptation is the woman’s weapon and the man’s excuse.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Temptation
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“War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: War
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“The kind of man who demands that government enforce his ideas is always the kind whose ideas are idiotic.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Government
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“I do not believe in democracy, but I am perfectly willing to admit that it provides the only really amusing form of government ever endured by mankind.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Government
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“Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping and unintelligent.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Government
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“Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.”
H.L. Mencken
Submitted by Quonation |Category: Conscience
