Imagine the Creator as a low comedian, and at once the world becomes explicable.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that viewing the world with humor reveals its complexities and absurdities.
H. L. Mencken's quote invites us to reconsider our perception of life and the universe by comparing the Creator to a low comedian. This perspective implies that if we see the world through a comedic lens, its often chaotic and nonsensical nature becomes more understandable, allowing us to appreciate the absurdity of human existence and the events that unfold around us.
In practice
During a speech about the complexities of life, I would use this quote to highlight the absurdity of certain situations.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
Too often a story is examined through biased eyes, without a sensitivity for everyone who forged it. It's seen from the point of view of the great white savior, and rarely is the perspective of the slave a part.
Things looked at patiently from one side after another generally end by showing a side that is beautiful.
To put it another way, pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Why must it be pain? Why can't he rouse us more gently, with violins or laughter? Because the dream from which we must be wakened, is the dream that all is well.
Where the soul is full of peace and joy, outward surrounding and circumstances are of comparatively little account.
My language is the sum total of myself.
Those who choose not to empathize enable real monsters, for without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves we collude with it through our apathy.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.