H. L. Mencken Quotes About Sin

• In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.

  H. L. Mencken

  Thankful, Gratitude, Freedom

  "A Mencken Chrestomathy". Book by H. L. Mencken, 1949.

• Sin is a dangerous toy in the hands of the virtuous. It should be left to the congenitally sinful, who know when to play with it and when to let it alone.

  H. L. Mencken

  Hands, Play, Toys

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.281, Vintage

• It is impossible to believe that the same God who permitted His own son to die a bachelor regards celibacy as an actual sin.

  H. L. Mencken

  God, Believe, Son

  H. L. Mencken (2012). “In Defense of Women”, p.47, Courier Corporation

• Evil: That which one believes of others. It is a sin to believe evil of others, but it is seldom a mistake

  H. L. Mencken

  Mistake, Believe, Evil

  A Little Book in C Major ch. 5 (1916)

• No man of honor ever quite lives up to his code, any more than a moral man manages to avoid sin.

  H. L. Mencken

  Lying, Men, Honor

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.26, Knopf

• Setting aside the vast herd which shows no definable character at all, it seems to me that the minority distinguished by what is commonly regarded as an excess of sin is very much more admirable than the minority distinguished by an excess of virtue. My experience of the world has taught me that the average wine-bibbler is a far better fellow than the average prohibitionist, and that the average rogue is better company than the average poor drudge, and that the worst white-slave trader of my acquaintance is a decenter man than the best vice crusader.

  H. L. Mencken

  Wine, Character, Men

• To believe that Russia has got rid of the evils of capitalism takes a special kind of mind. It is the same kind of mind that believes that a Holy Roller has got rid of sin.

  H. L. Mencken

  Believe, Russia, Evil

• The extortions and oppressions of government will go on so long as such bare fraudulence deceives and disarms the victims; so long as they are ready to swallow the immemorial official theory that protesting against the stealings of the archbishop's secretary's nephew's mistress' illegitimate son is a sin against the Holy Ghost.

  H. L. Mencken

  Son, Government, Long

  H.L. MENCKEN (1958). “PREJUDICES A SELECTION”

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