H. L. Mencken Quotes

Firmness in decision is often merely a form of stupidity. It indicates an inability to think the same thing out twice.

H. L. Mencken

• Decision

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Quotes to Explore

• I just thought it was unconscionable for the Congress to insert itself into this debate. We are particularly unqualified to make that decision and to intrude ourselves into the lives of this family.

  

  Gary Ackerman
  • Family
  • Decision
  • Thought

• I second-guess myself all the time. I make a decision and then wonder if I made the wrong choice.

  

  Kate Walsh
  • Time
  • Myself
  • Decision

• If a decision-making process is flawed and dysfunctional, decisions will go awry.

  

  Carly Fiorina
  • Decision
  • Process
  • Will

• The last time I had to make a career decision, I was 17. I could have gone to Ballet Theatre or National Ballet of Canada. There were options. But as I became exposed to the Robbins repertoire, I realized that there was a living genius in the house.

  

  Damian Woetzel
  • Time
  • Career
  • House

• Europe, the U.S., and their allies can defeat the terrorists of Islamic State, or ISIS. The first step is making the decision to fight back. The next step is understanding that drones and standoff missiles will not be enough. Ground troops will be needed.

  

  Naftali Bennett
  • Understanding
  • Decision
  • Fight

• Migration - whether emigration or return - at the micro level is an individual choice, and government both at the Centre and the states have role only to facilitate the decision of the individuals.

  

  Vayalar Ravi
  • Government
  • Decision
  • Choice

• The chef can be very innovative, but the decision is made by the customer.

  

  Barry Lam
  • Decision
  • Customer
  • Chef

• Capitalism works better from every perspective when the economic decision makers are forced to share power with those who will be affected by those decisions.

  

  Barney Frank
  • Power
  • Decision
  • Perspective

• Towards the end of February 1928, I took the decision of using brilliant monochromatic illumination obtained by the aid of the commercially available mercury arcs sealed in quartz tubes.

  

  C. V. Raman
  • Decision
  • End
  • February

• If you're going to write thrillers, you have to make a decision if you are going to be realistic or go off and over.

  

  Karin Slaughter
  • You
  • Decision
  • Over

• I'm a Libra. That means that I can make a decision, but only after much thought.

  

  P. J. Harvey
  • Decision
  • Thought
  • I Can

• Voting to go on strike is not a decision working people take lightly and is always accompanied by a strong sense of injustice at work. The impact of losing a day's pay is significant, not least for those in the lowest paid jobs who are already on the tightest budgets.

  

  Frances O'Grady
  • People
  • Work
  • Strong

• I'm sure that was the right step, even though, formally speaking, it may seem disadvantageous for a president to resign. But, looking into what is happening today and what is going to happen in the future, I think history will show I made the right decision.

  

  Eduard Shevardnadze
  • May
  • History
  • Future

• I made the decision to come back to New York, quit my job and move to Paris.

  

  Ed Bradley
  • Job
  • Decision
  • New York

• When team members openly and passionately share their opinions about a decision, they don't wonder whether anyone is holding back. Then, when the leader has to step in and make a decision because there is no easy consensus, team members will accept that decision because they know that their ideas were heard and considered.

  

  Patrick Lencioni
  • Team
  • Decision
  • Wonder

• In each verse, a decision awaits us, and we can't choose to close our eyes and let instinct work on its own. Poetic instinct consists of an alert tension.

  

  Octavio Paz
  • Work
  • Eyes
  • Decision

• It's fairness to say those who work hard, get up in the morning, cut their cloth - in other words 'we can only afford to have one or two children because we don't earn enough'. They pay their taxes and they want to know that the same kind of decision-making is taking place for those on benefits.

  

  Iain Duncan Smith
  • Up
  • Work
  • Children

• I am pro-choice, but I don't consider that inconsistent at all with pro-life - there's no way that having an abortion, ever, is an easy decision, and it more often errs on the side of absolutely wrenching, not to mention physically debilitating.

  

  Rachel Sklar
  • Life
  • Decision
  • Abortion

• I made a decision to live outside the city in northern California. My agent said to me, 'Kid, you're going to make a mint in television movies.' He positioned me, and we picked really good projects, and I cornered that market. They were 20-day projects.

  

  Mare Winningham
  • Good
  • Live
  • City

• The Iraqi military are able to deploy these weapons within 45 minutes of a decision to do so.

  

  John Scarlett
  • Decision
  • Military

• A thug is someone who stands on his own. He lives by the decisions he makes and accepts the consequences. A thug is comfortable in his own skin. I wear mine like a glove.

  

  Trick Daddy
  • Decision
  • Accepting
  • Comfortable

• Almost all human affairs are tedious. Everything is too long. Visits, dinners, concerts, plays, speeches, pleadings, essays, sermons, are too long. Pleasure and business labor equally under this defect, or, as I should rather say, this fatal super-abundance.

  

  Arthur Helps
  • Business
  • Human
  • Pleasure

• Firmness in decision is often merely a form of stupidity. It indicates an inability to think the same thing out twice.

  

  H. L. Mencken
  • Decision