The Quotes canon
Sourced and curated.
Every quote has been curated by hand and carefully authenticated.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Artists1 quote
The great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable. — H.L. Mencken · 1919Beliefs1 quote
How long will the human race sweat under the superstition that, in order to be happy and useful and intelligent, it is necessary to believe in things? What nonsense indeed! Human progress consists, not in acquiring beliefs, but in getting rid of them. — H.L. Mencken · 1921Capitalism1 quote
Capitalism undoubtedly has certain boils and blotches upon it, but has it as many as government? Has it as many as marriage? Has it as many as religion? I doubt it. It is the only basic institution of modern man that shows any genuine health and vigor. — H.L. Mencken · 1928Democracy1 quote
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. — H.L. Mencken · 1916Downsides of freedom1 quote
The average man doesn't want to be free. He simply wants to be safe. — H.L. Mencken · 1926Elusiveness of truth1 quote
Nine times out of ten, in the arts as in life, there is actually no truth to be discovered; there is only error to be exposed. — H.L. Mencken · 1922Faith1 quote
Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. — H.L. Mencken · 1922Freedom vs. safety1 quote
The average man doesn't want to be free. He simply wants to be safe. — H.L. Mencken · 1926Middle class respectability1 quote
The great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable. — H.L. Mencken · 1919Originality1 quote
The great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable. — H.L. Mencken · 1919Political theory1 quote
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. — H.L. Mencken · 1918Politics1 quote
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. — H.L. Mencken · 1918Politics and lies1 quote
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. — H.L. Mencken · 1918Puritanism1 quote
Puritanism—The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy. — H.L. Mencken · 1949Safety1 quote
The average man doesn't want to be free. He simply wants to be safe. — H.L. Mencken · 1926Solving problems1 quote
There is always a well-known solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong. — H.L. Mencken · 1917The masses1 quote
No one in this world, so far as I know...has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. — H.L. Mencken · 1926Truth1 quote
Nine times out of ten, in the arts as in life, there is actually no truth to be discovered; there is only error to be exposed. — H.L. Mencken · 1922