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

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Quotes to Explore

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

  

  Felix Klein
  • Always
  • Greatest
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• 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
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• Perhaps things are not things but words: metaphors, words for other things.

  

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

  

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

  

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

  

  Queen Latifah
  • Love
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• 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 will confess I am a great wingman. Since I have a girlfriend, I'll start the night with her, but then I'll help out the guys by making them sound like the most incredible guys in the world.

  

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• People love to see reactions, they love to see emotions that come about.

  

  LaToya London
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  • Emotions

• In my view, a right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children is among the 'unalienable Rights' with which the Declaration of Independence proclaims 'all Men . . . are endowed by their Creator.'

  

  Antonin Scalia
  • Men
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  • Parents

• I certainly hope 'Dragon' can leave some legacy behind.

  

  Donnie Yen
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• Artists know that diligence counts as much, if not more, as inspiration; in art, as in politics, patience counts as much as revolution.

  

  Tony Kushner
  • Art
  • Artist
  • Inspiration

• 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