H. L. Mencken Quotes About Religion

• Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

  H. L. Mencken

  God, Being Happy, Cynical

  A Mencken Chrestomathy ch. 30 (1949)

• Morality is doing what is right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right.

  H. L. Mencken

  Motivational, Religion, Atheism

• Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration - courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth.

  H. L. Mencken

  Atheist, Honesty, Thinking

• Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Religion

• We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.

  H. L. Mencken

  Beautiful, Respect, Religious

  Minority Report: H. L. Mencken's Notebooks (1956)

• I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind.

  H. L. Mencken

  Religious, Believe, Religion

  "What I Believe" in The Forum 84 (p. 139), September 1930.

• We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine.

  H. L. Mencken

  Inspirational, Drinking, Knowledge

  "A Mencken chrestomathy". Book by Henry Louis Mencken, 1949.

• The essence of science is that it is always willing to abandon a given idea for a better one; the essence of theology is that it holds its truths to be eternal and immutable.

  H. L. Mencken

  Essence, Ideas, Religion

• I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind - that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.

  H. L. Mencken

  Believe, Thinking, Religion

  "What I Believe". "The Forum", 84, (p. 139), September 1930.

• 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)

• There is something even more valuable to civilization than wisdom, and that is character.

  H. L. Mencken

  Character, Civilization, Religion

• A Puritan is someone who is desperately afraid that, somewhere, someone might be having a good time.

  H. L. Mencken

  Religion, Atheism, Might

• 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).

• There is only one honest impulse at the bottom of Puritanism, and that is the impulse to punish the man with a superior capacity for happiness.

  H. L. Mencken

  Happiness, Men, Religion

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.163, Vintage

• Evangelical Christianity, as everyone knows, is founded upon hate, as the Christianity of Christ was founded upon love.

  H. L. Mencken

  Religious, Hate, Religion

• Communism, like any other revealed religion, is largely made up of prophecies.

  H. L. Mencken

  Religion, Communism, Made

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.277, Knopf

• Morality is the theory that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that 99 % of them are wrong.

  H. L. Mencken

  Sad, Motherhood, Religion

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

• One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms. It is not only more effective; it is also vastly more intelligent.

  H. L. Mencken

  Horse, Laughter, Anger

  H. L. Mencken (1924). “Prejudices Fourth Series”

• An idealist is one who, on noticing that roses smell better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.

  H. L. Mencken

  Life, Food, Vegetables

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

• A church is a place in which gentlemen who have never been to Heaven brag about it to persons who will never get there.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Humor, Heaven

  "A Little Book in C Major".

• The most curious social convention of the great age in which we live is the one to the effect that religious opinions should be respected.

  H. L. Mencken

  Religious, Religion, Atheism

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.80, Vintage

• The chief contribution of Protestantism to human thought is its massive proof that God is a bore.

  H. L. Mencken

  Religion, Atheism, Proof

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.311, Knopf

• Religion is "so absurd that it comes close to imbecility."

  H. L. Mencken

  Atheist, Religion, Atheism

• A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.

  H. L. Mencken

  Family, Children, School

  H.L. Mencken “A little book in C major”, Рипол Классик

• Archbishop - A Christian ecclesiastic of a rank superior to that attained by Christ.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Christian, Humorous

  A Little Book in C Major ch. 4 (1916)

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