Frases célebres de Henry Louis Mencken
Frases de hombres de Henry Louis Mencken
Henry Louis Mencken Frases y Citas
Henry Louis Mencken: Frases en inglés
“Creator — A comedian whose audience is afraid to laugh.”
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
“Judge — A law student who marks his own examination-papers.”
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
?Ch. ??
1910s, Prejudices, First Series (1919)
“Historian — An unsuccessful novelist.”
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
"Why Liberty?”, in the Chicago Tribune (30 January 1927)
1920s
Contexto: I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman’s club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave.
79
1940s–present, Minority Report : H.L. Mencken's Notebooks (1956)
“The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.”
H.L. Mencken libro Notes on Democracy
Part 2, chapter 4 http://books.google.com/books?id=Xw-DAAAAMAAJ&q=%22The+demagogue+is+one+who+preaches+doctrines+he+knows+to+be+untrue+to+men+he+knows+to+be+idiots%22&pg=PA103#v=onepage <br class="br">1920s, Notes on Democracy (1926) <br class="br">Contexto: The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots. The demaslave is one who listens to what these idiots have to say and pretends to believe it himself.
H.L. Mencken libro Notes on Democracy
1920s
Fuente: Notes on Democracy (1926)
A Little Book in C Major, New York, NY, John Lane Company (1916) p. 53
1910s
Variante: If we assume that man actually does resemble God, then we are forced into the impossible theory that God is a coward, an idiot and a bounder.
“Theology — An effort to explain the unknowable by putting it into terms of the not worth knowing.”
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
"What I Believe" in The Forum 84 (September 1930), p. 139; some of these expressions were also used separately in other Mencken essays.
1930s
Contexto: I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind — that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.
I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious.
I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war upon liberty and the democratic form is as bad as any of the other forms.
I believe that the evidence for immortality is no better than the evidence of witches, and deserves no more respect.
I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech — alike for the humblest man and the mightiest, and in the utmost freedom of conduct that is consistent with living in organized society.
I believe in the capacity of man to conquer his world, and to find out what it is made of, and how it is run.
I believe in the reality of progress.
I —But the whole thing, after all, may be put very simply. I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.
