For it is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together. Our friends seldom profit us but they make us feel safe. Marriage is a scheme to accomplish exactly that same end.
Interpretation
The essence of strong relationships lies in mutual trust rather than just shared interests.
H. L. Mencken emphasizes the importance of mutual trust in both friendships and marriages, stating that while friends may not always bring tangible benefits, they provide a sense of safety and security. This trust forms the foundation of human connections and is essential for lasting relationships.
In practice
In a speech on the qualities of lasting friendships, this quote can be used to emphasize the importance of trust.
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.
Not that we were incompatible: we just had nothing to talk about.
Most chick-singers say "If you hurt me, I'll die"... I say, if you hurt me, I'll kick your ass.
It was a strange thing, to still be in love with your wife and to not know if you liked her. What would happen when this was all over? Could you forgive someone if she hurt you and the people you love, if she truly believed she was only trying to help? I had filed for divorce, but that wasn't what I really wanted. What I really wanted was for all of us to go back two years, and start over. Had I ever really told her that?
Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
My wife and I were worried, when we had our firstborn, about how he was going to think of himself in a mostly white neighborhood. Particularly Asian men, I feel, we suffer more than Asian women, because we're told we're not worth anything in general.
There are people who cannot risk loneliness with the experience. They always have to be in a flock and have human contact.
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