Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that what is considered immoral is often defined by those who are not enjoying life to the fullest.
H. L. Mencken's quote explores the idea that societal norms of morality are often dictated by those who are less adventurous or less willing to embrace life's pleasures. It implies that those who are having a better time may participate in actions deemed immoral simply because they seek enjoyment and fulfillment outside of conventional boundaries. This positions the concept of morality as subjective and influenced by individual experiences and happiness.
In practice
A discussion on ethical dilemmas in a philosophical lecture.
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.
The church would betray its own love for God and its fidelity to the gospel if it stopped being . . . a defender of the rights of the poor . . . a humanizer of every legitimate struggle to achieve a more just society . . . that prepares the way for the true reign of God in history.
So we reach into the raging chaos, and we cling to it, and we tell ourselves it has meaning, and that the world is good, and we are not evil, and we will all go home in the end.
The promise of pleasures so alluring that we may devote our lives to their pursuit, and then the haunting realization that these pleasures ultimately do not satisfy.
Worthless is the nation that does not gladly stake its all on its honor.
If principles can become dated, they're not principles.
I tell you the groans of the damned in hell are the deep bass of the universal anthem of praise that shall ascend to the throne of my God for ever and ever.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.