The Public ... demands certainties ... But there are not certainties
Interpretation
The public seeks absolute truths, yet in reality, certainty is elusive.
H. L. Mencken's quote highlights the tension between public expectations for clear and unwavering truths and the complex nature of reality, which often lacks certainty. This reflection on human nature and societal demands suggests that while people desire straightforward answers, the world is filled with ambiguity and uncertainty that cannot be easily resolved.
In practice
In a debate about government policies, this quote could underscore the complexity of decision-making.
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.
What have I done? I've blundered my way through life. So I have my picture on the wall. The minute I die, that picture will start to yellow and fade and eventually be gone. Blown in the wind and become part of the molecular structure of something else. These things we see as "success," they're non-accomplishments.
Like looking through a telescope into the Milky Way and wondering if we're alone in the universe, it made me realize with the glaring clarity of desert light how scarce and delicate life is, how insignificant we are compared with the forces of nature and the dimensions of space.
The unexpectedness of life, waiting round every corner, catches even wise women unawares (...) To avoid corners altogether is, after all, to refuse to live.
I will make a Star-chamber matter of it.
Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights.
He who doesn't pray to the Lord prays to the devil.
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