It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.
Interpretation
Mencken expresses a preference for common virtues over political ambition.
In this quote, H. L. Mencken emphasizes the conflict between personal values such as common sense and decency, and the often corrupt nature of public office. He suggests that holding onto these virtues can preclude one from engaging in politics, which often requires compromise and a departure from such ideals.
In practice
During a speech about ethics in politics.
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.
A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.
Think often on God, by day, by night, in your business and even in your diversions. He is always near you and with you; leave him not alone.
Myth expresses in terms of the world - that is, of the other world or the second world - the understanding that man has of himself in relation to the foundation and the limit of his existence.
If you wish to glimpse inside a human soul and get to know a man, don't bother analyzing his ways of being silent, of talking, of weeping, of seeing how much he is moved by noble ideas; you will get better results if you just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he's a good man.
I feel very strongly that Iβm surrounded by other realities.
Europe has been a place of refuge. Why should it stop with black and brown bodies?
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