H. L. Mencken Quotes

The true function of art is to criticize, embellish and edit nature… the artist is a sort of impassioned proof-reader, blue penciling the bad spelling of God.

H. L. Mencken

• God
• Art
• Bad
• True
• Nature
• Blue
• Proof

• Previous
• Next

Quotes to Explore

• The greatest mathematicians, as Archimedes, Newton, and Gauss, always united theory and applications in equal measure.

  

  Felix Klein
  • Always
  • Greatest
  • Equal

• I try to give the appearance that I have it all together and that I know what I'm talking about, but at the end of the day, I think I might be full of crap.

  

  Laura Benanti
  • Together
  • Day
  • End

• Perhaps things are not things but words: metaphors, words for other things.

  

  Octavio Paz
  • Words
  • Things
  • Other

• Food production has affected the environment more than any other activity humans have engaged in. Humanity devotes more land to food production than anything else - roughly a third of the surface area of the earth, much of which was once forest but has been converted by humans into farms or grazing lands.

  

  Ramez Naam
  • Earth
  • Food
  • Environment

• In motorsports we work in the grey areas a lot. You're trying to find where the holes are in the rule book.

  

  Danica Patrick
  • Work
  • Trying
  • Book

• I'm very involved with kids because after being a teacher for seven years, I just can't stop loving the kids. I am a teacher forever.

  

  Yolanda Adams
  • Kids
  • Teacher
  • Involved

• I have a carbohydrate and protein-rich diet. For breakfast, I typically have two slices of bread with butter or jam, four to five eggs - boiled or fried - a few bananas and a glass of milk.

  

  Vijender Singh
  • Breakfast
  • Bread
  • Diet

• I try to avoid conflict. I don't want people to be unhappy.

  

  Viggo Mortensen
  • People
  • Conflict
  • Unhappy

• Oh, it is quite possible that none of us in 'Downton' will ever again get the ratings this has had. But from a career point of view, it has opened so many doors.

  

  Dan Stevens
  • Career
  • Doors
  • View

• When I'm doing my own makeup, I just stick to a bit of black liner, some blush and a nude glossy lip.

  

  Abbey Clancy
  • Black
  • Doing
  • Makeup

• I invented animals and birds – I had about two dozen. After working on them for six months, I sat down and just for fun wrote two dozen poems to accompany the drawings. It was for no one to every see, but a friend sent me in to an editor.

  

  Jack Prelutsky
  • Fun
  • Friend
  • Working

• The common base of all the Semitic creeds, winners or losers, was the ever present idea of world-worthlessness. Their profound reaction from matter led them to preach bareness, renunciation, poverty; and the atmosphere of this invention stifled the minds of the desert pitilessly.

  

  T. E. Lawrence
  • World
  • Present
  • Poverty

• I do not know You, God, because I am in the way. Please help me to push myself aside.

  

  Flannery O'Connor
  • God
  • Help
  • Push

• The sleeplessness is proven; it eradicates your memory.

  

  Gaby Hoffmann
  • Memory
  • Your
  • Proven

• I'm obsessed with subtexts. I love that we often don't say what we feel. That gap between the two. I like it when actors reveal a lot without having to say it.

  

  Felicity Jones
  • Love
  • Feel
  • Say

• There's an awareness of fashion in this country, and it's not limited to gay people.

  

  Calvin Klein
  • People
  • Country
  • Fashion

• You do silly things for love sometimes and not-so-smart things for love.

  

  Queen Latifah
  • Love
  • Sometimes
  • For Her

• In any country there must be people who have to die. They are the sacrifices any nation has to make to achieve law and order.

  

  Idi Amin
  • People
  • Country
  • Law

• I never had goals to be in the top 10 or top five in the world. I just try to find the borders, find what level I can reach. I have a good team around me, so hopefully it's going to get even better.

  

  Lukas Rosol
  • World
  • Good
  • Team

• People ask me, 'Why don't you take time off?' but the working class doesn't take time off. They're out there working every day. That's what I do, too. I want them to know there is hope, and I'm out there just like they are.

  

  Donald Cerrone
  • People
  • Time
  • Why

• Praying men must be strong in hope, and faith, and prayer.

  

  Edward McKendree Bounds
  • Men
  • Hope
  • Strong

• All my books are very spiritual. I started out writing what was most natural to me, many years ago, which is religious, because I grew up in the jungle, the son of missionaries. I want to know, is God real? What's a priest's role?

  

  Ted Dekker
  • Up
  • God
  • Writing

• I've wanted to manage a long time and I've been moving in that direction.

  

  Don Mattingly
  • Time
  • Long
  • Moving

• The true function of art is to criticize, embellish and edit nature… the artist is a sort of impassioned proof-reader, blue penciling the bad spelling of God.

  

  H. L. Mencken
  • God
  • Art
  • Bad