H. L. Mencken Quotes

The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God's children, but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil.

Quotes to Explore
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I would convert to Judaism if the operation didn't hurt so much.
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I went to bed last night dreaming of tuna melts. I love food.
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I don't want to say anything because I know I am unable to protect you from the harm that I see.
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Disciples be damned. It's not interesting. It's only the masters that matter. Those who create.
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Be who you are and be that well.
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My kind of director is an actor-director who writes.
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The biography of a writer - or even the autobiography - will always have this incompleteness.
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The first time you meet someone, the conversation is sort of on life support. You're just trying to live another moment in the life of the conversation.
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Anybody I'm dating, I don't want them to talk about my music. I don't talk about my music to them.
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I get inspired in certain places. You have to write in places like Amsterdam or Paris or New Zealand, when you're standing on a yacht, looking out at the middle of the ocean.
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Free societies are societies in motion, and with motion comes friction.
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In Swat, there are two jobs a woman's going to do: a teacher or a doctor. If not, then become a housewife.
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I was the highest-paid street performer, probably, in the history of Chicago. I was making like $800 a day.
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Decision making in a democracy depends above all on knowledge and not just the intel available to presidents and policymakers.
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Readers are very, very savvy, and I don't want to insult them by making them think I'm too lazy to get it right.
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I differ materially from Capt. Lewis, in my account of the numbers, manners, and morals of the Sioux.
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I'm more comfortable revealing myself than hiding behind metaphors. I respond to artists who reveal something of themselves.
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What do I want in a good fantasy book? Court politics and social interactions based around houses and cities. Powerful women and devious men. Drama and action with emotional ramifications. Frocks. Kissing. Swords. An intense impression of history in the world-building.
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When I was, like, 16, I went in to the head of Disney, and I hadn't taken acting class really at all, and I didn't know what I was doing, and it was really embarrassing. Of course, you think Disney wants over-the-top and funny, and I was just trying to be over-the-top and funny, and it just wasn't working, and that was the worst.
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Hollywood is the only thing more ridiculous than Silicon Valley. There's nowhere else where it's stranger.
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When I was young, I used to expect Parisians to wear little black berets, to bicycle about with strings of onions around their necks, and to brandish long sticks of bread, just like they used to do in school textbooks.
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Environmentally friendly business practices have long been mainstream, particularly when they create a brand advantage, as with organic foods.
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The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God's children, but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil.