Quote #22
The basic fact about human existence is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not so much a war as an endless standing in line. The objection to it is not that it is predominantly painful, but that it is lacking in sense.
More from H. L. Mencken
- Suppose two-thirds of the members of the national House of Representatives were dumped into the Washington garbage incinerator tomorrow, wh…
- I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind - that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethica…
- What is any political campaign save a concerted effort to turn out a set of politicians who are admittedly bad and put in a set who are tho…
- When A annoys or injures B on the pretense of saving or improving X, A is a scoundrel.
- The liberation of the human mind has never been furthered by such learned dunderheads; it has been furthered by gay fellows who heaved dead…
- It is [a politician's] business to get and hold his job at all costs. If he can hold it by lying, he will hold it by lying; if lying peters…
- The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has no…
- Public opinion, in its raw state, gushes out in the immemorial form of the mob's fear. It is piped into central factories, and there it is …