H. L. Mencken Quotes

Poetry has done enough when it charms, but prose must also convince.

H. L. Mencken

• Done
• Poetry
• Convince

• Previous
• Next

Quotes to Explore

• I think a strong dollar is the result of policies, but I don't think the strong dollar is in and of itself a policy.

  

  Carly Fiorina
  • Think
  • Strong
  • Dollar

• After leaving school, I travelled around Europe for about six months. In Denmark, I thought that was my chance to get an amazing haircut, so I went to what I thought was a great hairdresser. It turned out to be the car wash of hairdressers, and I walked out sporting yet another pudding bowl, but this time with a stripe bleached down the centre.

  

  Becki Newton
  • Time
  • Great
  • School

• I have to be on such a strict diet constantly.

  

  Lady Gaga
  • Diet
  • Constantly
  • Strict

• The work that is truly productive is the domain of a steadily smaller and more elite fraction of humanity.

  

  Vernor Vinge
  • Work
  • Humanity
  • More

• To be honest, proper recognition has only come from the fans. I don't want to be hard, and I don't want to be negative, but I want to be honest.

  

  Yaya Toure
  • Want
  • Negative
  • Recognition

• My work was entirely nonfiction.

  

  Laura Hillenbrand
  • Work
  • Nonfiction
  • Entirely

• Vox populi vox dei: the voice of the people is the voice of God. The slogan was useful for those who first attempted to substitute the people for God as the source of political authority. Their attempt was ultimately so successful that God no longer seems to be needed in government.

  

  Edmund Morgan
  • People
  • God
  • Political

• We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than that only freedom can make security secure.

  

  Karl Popper
  • Freedom
  • Security
  • Plan

• Throughout American history many of our social gains and much of our progress toward democracy were made possible by the active intervention of the federal government.

  

  Harold Washington
  • American
  • History
  • Democracy

• I'm looking for people who are at the cutting edge of what they do, who think out-of-the-box. Even if their work is something common today, it might have been absolutely new when they started out, so we'd like to hear of their beginnings.

  

  Lakshmi Pratury
  • People
  • Work
  • Today

• The qubit acts as a bridge between the microscopic and the macroscopic worlds.

  

  Aaron D. O'Connell
  • Bridge
  • Between
  • Acts

• When someone was hitting me, or like sexually molesting me, it just seemed normal to continue to do that to myself.

  

  Tatum O'Neal
  • Me
  • Myself
  • Just

• It comes back to the same old question people are always asking me: 'When are you going to do a solo record?' Well, if I did, it would probably be similar to 'Baluchitherium,' meaning it would be Van Halen music - which I write anyway - but without singing.

  

  Eddie Van Halen Van Halen
  • People
  • Music
  • Question

• I would literally have to go meet people so they could see I didn't have big red hair and wear high heels constantly. It was just really ingrained in people.

  

  Katey Sagal
  • People
  • High
  • Hair

• I've had the most untraumatic life a human being can have. But I've always been drawn to those who have had far more complicated histories.

  

  Malcolm Gladwell
  • Life
  • Always
  • Human

• I first met my husband when I was 15. He was very cool, in a band, all that kind of thing, but he took a long time to grow up. Our paths crossed again 10 years later, and after about two weeks I knew that was it. I'm glad I met him when I did, even though I was fairly young. Because I think sometimes you can crystallise into singledom.

  

  Natascha McElhone
  • Up
  • Time
  • Long

• Despite his NFL pedigree, Clay Matthews had to fight every step of the way to get to the NFL. Once there, he's had a unique appreciation of what it took to succeed.

  

  Hannah Storm
  • Unique
  • Appreciation
  • Step

• My work always presents problems in our society. Those problems may be anything from injustice to freedom, and everything related to humanity.

  

  Okky Madasari
  • Work
  • May
  • Society

• In Sheffield, we need support from the community and for the community. We need integration with no loss of heritage, and a clear appreciation of what is and is not acceptable.

  

  David Blunkett
  • Community
  • Support
  • Appreciation

• I like working with kid actors because they surprise you constantly. I mean, all actors do - but kids particularly.

  

  Joe Dante
  • Kids

• I never want to listen to the songs in front of people close to me. There's an emotional honesty in that place where it's not earnest but it's vulnerable.

  

  Yannis Philippakis
  • People
  • Song
  • Emotional

• When I started writing poetry, it was always in very hip-hop influenced spaces: Someone would teach a Nas song side-by-side with a Gwendolyn Brooks poem, and we'd talk about the connections between those things.

  

  Jamila Woods
  • Writing
  • Song
  • Poetry

• As soon as I got into country music, it was like hook, line and sinker. I was so focused on country, I ended up leaving all those '80s hair-band CDs behind - which now I still wish I had, but I was done with it.

  

  Dierks Bentley
  • Up
  • Music
  • Country

• Poetry has done enough when it charms, but prose must also convince.

  

  H. L. Mencken
  • Done
  • Poetry
  • Convince