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Quotes of the Day for 12 September 2004 - H. L. Mencken

Henry Louis Mencken was born at Baltimore, Maryland on this day in 1880. The son of a cigar merchant, he worked for his father's company but gave it up for journalism when his father died, although he never gave up cigars. Normally I try to mix up the quotes from year to year, but there are a few who will be celebrated on their birthday every year because of their marvelously quotable legacy. It's a short list that includes Shaw, Voltaire, Shakespeare, Jefferson, and today, Mencken.

A man may be a fool and not know it - but not if he is married.

The objection to Puritans is not that they try to make us think as they do, but that they try to make us do as they think.

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.

Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone might be looking.

Legend: a lie that has attained the dignity of age.

Whenever A annoys or injures B on the pretense of saving or improving X, A is a scoundrel.

There is always an easy solution to every human problem - neat, plausible, and wrong.
     - All from Henry Louis Mencken, 1880 - 1956

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