H. L. Mencken Quotes About Belief

• Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, Ignorance, Majority Rule

  "Notes On Journalism". Chicago Tribune, September 19, 1926.

• It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Witty, Humorous

• The more a man dreams, the less he believes.

  H. L. Mencken

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  H.L. Mencken (1920). “Prejudices Second Series”

• Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.

  H. L. Mencken

  Faith, Freedom, Believe

  Prejudices, Third Series ch. 14 (1922)

• Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.... A man full of faith is simply one who has lost (or never had) the capacity for clear and realistic thought. He is not a mere ass: he is actually ill.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, May, Belief

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.11, Vintage

• The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.

  H. L. Mencken

  Believe, Religion, Occupation

  Prejudices (1926).

• My belief in free speech is so profound that I am seldom tempted to deny it to the other fellow. Nor do I make any effort to differentiate between the other fellow right and that other fellow wrong, for I am convinced that free speech is worth nothing unless it includes a full franchise to be foolish and even...malicious.

  H. L. Mencken

  Profound, Effort, Speech

  H.L. Mencken (2011). “My Life as Author and Editor”, p.29, Vintage

• A man full of faith is simply one who has lost the capacity for clear and realistic thought.

  H. L. Mencken

  Faith, Atheist, Men

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.11, Vintage

• The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.

  H. L. Mencken

  Rights, Desert, Belief

  "A Second Mencken Chrestomathy (Varieties of Envy)". Book by H. L. Mencken, 1995.

• A dull, dark, depressing day in Winter: the whole world looks like a Methodist church at Wednesday night prayer meeting.

  H. L. Mencken

  Depressing, Prayer, Dark

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.13, Knopf

• The only really respectable Protestants are the fundamentalists. Unfortunately, they are also palpable idiots.

  H. L. Mencken

  Superstitions, Belief, Idiot

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.121, Knopf

• As long as the Southern colleges have revivals on their campuses and students get converted to Methodism and join the YMCA and are accepted as gentlemen, it will be impossible to think of the South as civilized...The educated folk of the Old South took theology lightly, and religion to them was hardly more than a charming ritual, useful on solemn occassions.

  H. L. Mencken

  College, Thinking, Ymca

• I am one of the few goyim who have ever actually tackled the Talmud. I suppose you now expect me to add that it is a profound and noble work, worthy of hard study by all other goyims. Unhappily, my report must differ from this expectation. It seems to me, save for a few bright spots, to be quite indistinguishable from rubbish.

  H. L. Mencken

  Profound, Expectations, Noble

• Who will argue that 98.6 Farenheit is the right temperature for man? As for me, I decline to do it. It may be that we are all actually freezing hence the pervading stupidity of mankind. At 110 or 115 degrees even archbishops might be intelligent.

  H. L. Mencken

  Intelligent, Men, Stupidity

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.213, Knopf

• The Catholic clergy seldom bother to make their arguments plausible; it is plain that they have little respect for human intelligence, and indeed little belief in its existence.

  H. L. Mencken

  Catholic, Littles, Superstitions

• After all, why be good? How many will actually believe it of us?

  H. L. Mencken

  Believe, Belief, Be Good

• Save among politicians it is no longer necessary for any educated American to profess belief in Thirteenth Century ideas

  H. L. Mencken

  Ideas, Belief, Politician

• Hope: A pathological belief in the occurrence of the impossible.

  H. L. Mencken

  Perseverance, Belief, Impossible

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.617, Vintage

• Friendship is a common belief in the same fallacies, mountebanks and hobgoblins.

  H. L. Mencken

  Friendship, Belief, Common

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.616, Vintage

• I have little belief in human progress. The human race is incurably idiotic. It will never be happy.

  H. L. Mencken

  Race, Progress, Littles

• To the best of my knowledge and belief, the average American newspaper, even of the so-called better sort, is not only quite as bad as Upton Sinclair says it is, but 10 times worse, 10 times as ignorant, 10 times as unfair and tyrannical, 10 times as complaisant and pusillanimous, and 10 times as devious, hypocritical, disingenuous, deceitful, pharisaical, Pecksniffian, fraudulent, slippery, unscrupulous, perfidious, lewd and dishonest.

  H. L. Mencken

  Average, Ignorant, Belief

• The truth that survives is simply the lie that is pleasantest to believe.

  H. L. Mencken

  Truth, Lying, Believe

• To the best of my knowledge and belief, the average American newspaper, even of the so-called better sort, is not only quite as bad as Upton Sinclair says it is, but 10 times worse

  H. L. Mencken

  Media, Average, Belief

• Why assume so glibly that the God who presumably created the universe is still running it? It is certainly conceivable that He may have finished it and then turned it over to lesser gods to operate.

  H. L. Mencken

  God, Running, Religious

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.298, Knopf

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