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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Most of the fans of John Lennon and maybe John and Yoko are younger than me.
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People often think that looking in the mirror is about narcissism. Children look at their reflection to see who they are. And they want to see what they can do with it, how plastic they can be, if they can touch their nose with their tongue, or what it looks like when they cross their eyes.
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When George Bush came into office, we had surpluses. And now we have half-a-trillion-dollar deficit annually. When George Bush came into office, our national debt was around $5 trillion. It's now over $10 trillion. We've almost doubled it.
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And I may add that it taught me something about the limitations of the small . . . orthodox scientist who won't recognize as knowledge, or as reality, any information that doesn't fit into the already existent science.
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I made the decision a long time ago that I had an obligation to my children that I happily fulfilled.
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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.