H. L. Mencken Common Quotations

I hate all sports as rabidly as a person who likes sports hates common sense.

The common man knows exactly what he wants...and deserves to get it good and hard.

The most common of all follies is to believe in the palpably untrue.

Friendship is a common belief in the same fallacies, mountebanks and hobgoblins.

The editors are committed to nothing save this: to keep common sense as fast as they can, to belabor sham as agreeably as possible, to give civilized entertainment.

The time must come inevitably when mankind shall surmount the imbecility of religion, as it has surmounted the imbecility of religion's ally, magic. It is impossible to imagine this world being really civilized so long as so much nonsense survives. In even its highest forms religion embraces concepts that run counter to all common sense. It can be defended only by making assumptions and adopting rules of logic that are never heard of in any other field of human thinking.

The most popular man under a democracy is not the most democratic man, but the most despotic man. The common folk delight in the exactions of such a man. They like him to boss them. Their natural gait is the goose step.