H. L. Mencken
H. L. Mencken
Henry Louis Menckenwas a German-American journalist, satirist, cultural critic and scholar of American English. Known as the "Sage of Baltimore", he is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the twentieth century. As a scholar Mencken is known for The American Language, a multi-volume study of how the English language is spoken in the United States. His satirical reporting on the Scopes trial, which he dubbed the "Monkey Trial", also...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth12 September 1880
CountryUnited States of America
H. L. Mencken quotes about
Poetry has done enough when it charms, but prose must also convince.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.
The learned are seldom pretty fellows, and in many cases their appearance tends to discourage a love of study in the young.
The ideal state for a philosopher, indeed, is celibacy tempered by polygamy.
In Baltimore, soft crabs are always fried (or broiled) in the altogether, with maybe a small jock-strap of bacon added.
For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing.