H. L. Mencken Quotes About Change

• You come into the world with nothing, and the purpose of your life is to make something out of nothing.

  H. L. Mencken

  Life, Change, Wisdom

• Off goes the head of the king, and tyranny gives way to freedom. The change seems abysmal. Then, bit by bit, the face of freedom hardens, and by and by it is the old face of tyranny. Then another cycle, and another. But under the play of all these opposites there is something fundamental and permanent - the basic delusion that men may be governed and yet be free.

  H. L. Mencken

  Change, Kings, Men

  Preface to the first edition of "The American Credo: A Contribution Toward the Interpretation of the National Mind", book by George Jean Nathan and H. L. Mencken, 1920.

• Change is not progress.

  H. L. Mencken

  Change, Progress

• A sound American is simply one who has put out of his mind all doubts and questionings, and who accepts instantly, and as incontrovertible gospel, the whole body of official doctrine of his day, whatever it may be and no matter how often it may change. The instant he challenges it, no matter how timorously and academically, he ceases by that much to be a loyal and creditable citizen of the republic.

  H. L. Mencken

  Change, Loyalty, Time

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.316, Vintage

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