H. L. Mencken Quotes

After all, the world is not our handiwork, and we are not responsible for what goes on in it, save within very narrow limits.

H. L. Mencken

• World
• Responsibility
• Goes On

• Previous
• Next

Quotes to Explore

• 'Murder in the First' takes 12 episodes to explore the crime and the issues surrounding it, all in the hopes of answering the question, 'How did we get to this point?'

  

  Ian Anthony Dale
  • Question
  • First
  • Explore

• Too many executives I've met over the years have the mentality of a bodybuilder; they've come to accept the idea that growth is synonymous with success.

  

  Patrick Lencioni
  • Success
  • Growth
  • Years

• I think there's always a line between what is parody in good fun in chanting and what is intended to belittle certain segments of society.

  

  Gary Bettman
  • Good
  • Fun
  • Society

• Elizabeth, Lady C, claims to be writing at the limits of language. Would it not be insulting to her if I were diligently to follow after her, explaining what she means but is not smart enough to say?

  

  J. M. Coetzee
  • Writing
  • She
  • Language

• If you've followed my career at all, you will know that I perform best in comfortable surroundings. Though other leagues may seem more enticing to other players, it's something I'm just not interested in doing personally.

  

  Landon Donovan
  • May
  • Career
  • Know

• We make assumptions: nurses should be nice, teachers should be good. But everyone has a dark side, some darker than others.

  

  Karin Slaughter
  • Good
  • Nice
  • Dark

• We need to ask who is the enemy, and the enemies are terrorists.

  

  Zbigniew Brzezinski
  • Enemy
  • Need
  • Ask

• It was hard at school because, growing up, some people wanted to be friends with me just because they wanted to get to my dad and say that they had met him and had gone to our house. I didn't understand it at the time, but the older I got and the more aware of it I became, it started becoming hard.

  

  Francia Raisa
  • People
  • Up
  • Time

• There's this perception sometimes around here that I'm this Hollywood guy.

  

  Harry Anderson
  • Guy
  • Perception
  • Hollywood

• Time has changed and now is the age of spending.

  

  Zhang Yimou
  • Time
  • Age
  • Now

• We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased, we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too.

  

  Langston Hughes
  • People
  • Beautiful
  • Fear

• In novels, and American novels in particular, it's not just about redemption, it's about forward movement and healing oneself. Americans are very big on getting better.

  

  Hanya Yanagihara
  • American
  • Better
  • Healing

• If you look at any normal organization, the CEO is the person with the highest E.Q. The person with the highest IQ is often in the back room running the financials or the operations. That's topsy turvy.

  

  Walter O'Brien
  • You
  • Running
  • Look

• Instead of going out to dinner, buy good food. Cooking at home shows such affection. In a bad economy, it's more important to make yourself feel good.

  

  Ina Garten
  • Good
  • Important
  • Home

• I don't think you'll ever be happy about anything unless you've done it.

  

  Gary Barlow Take That
  • Done
  • Happy
  • Think

• If they can go out and buy my albums, I can at least make the sacrifice to holler at the few people who call. A lot of times I'm busy so they'll get my voice mail. And if I can speak to them and I have time, I always text back. Because I think that's very important.

  

  Flo Rida
  • People
  • Time
  • Important

• My favourite job hands down - and I think I can speak for everyone involved - was 'Breaking Bad.'

  

  Aaron Paul
  • Job
  • Bad
  • Speak

• Ultimately, biological phenomena involve molecules, and understanding them involves understanding the underlying chemistry. In my opinion, this is a particularly exciting area of chemistry.

  

  Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
  • Understanding
  • Opinion
  • Chemistry

• Happiness is open to all, since, when you boil it down, it merely consists of contentment with what you have got and doing what you can for other people.

  

  Robert Baden-Powell
  • People
  • Happiness
  • Contentment

• 'Crash' is a metaphor for what I see as the dehumanizing elements that are present in the world in which we live. We're distanced by the nature of the society we inhabit from a normal human reaction.

  

  J. G. Ballard
  • World
  • Live
  • Nature

• I knew real show business from my father, who had been an actor since he left the world of boxing.

  

  James Earl Jones
  • World
  • Real
  • Business

• The world is set up - as foreign as that can be to some people who are very materialistic - but there is a force in this world, once we step into it, that opens doors for us, that gives us a sense of purpose and the greatest life there is, in my view.

  

  James Redfield
  • People
  • Life
  • Up

• When we look back over the landscape of our lives from any particular vantage point, we will find that the most valuable and the most precious things that we have ever enjoyed or experienced are caught up in the quality and quantity of the loving relationships that we have enjoyed. That if any time of life we look back and we have accomplished anything else in the world, financially or materially or politically or any other way, and we do not have high-quality loving relationships to fall back on and to remember and to think about and to enjoy, to that degree we have failed as human beings.

  

  Brian Tracy
  • Life
  • Up
  • Time

• After all, the world is not our handiwork, and we are not responsible for what goes on in it, save within very narrow limits.

  

  H. L. Mencken
  • World
  • Responsibility
  • Goes On