Henry Louis Mencken Berühmte Zitate
Original englisch: "All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." - Bayard vs. Lionheart https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21831908/hl_mencken_article_26_jul_1920_the/ in The Evening Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), 1920-07-26 (dort am Ende des Artikels)
Zitate über Männer von Henry Louis Mencken
Zitate über Demokratie von Henry Louis Mencken
Demokratenspiegel. Die Korruption unter der Demokratie http://mencken.atspace.org/mencken9_2.htm
Original englisch: "Capitalism under democracy has a further advantage: its enemies, even when it is attacked, are scattered and weak, and it is usually easily able to array one half of them against the other half, and thus dispose of both."
Demokratenspiegel
Demokratenspiegel. Fußnote über Pechvögel http://mencken.atspace.org/mencken9_1.htm
Original englisch: "All politics, under democracy, resolves itself into a series of dynastic questions: the objective is always the job, not the principle."
Demokratenspiegel
Henry Louis Mencken Zitate und Sprüche
Englisch: "Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong" - "The Divine Afflatus" in: New York Evening Mail (16. November 1917); später veröffentlicht in Prejudices: Second Series (1921) p. 158 https://archive.org/stream/prejudices030184mbp#page/n163/mode/1up und, geringfügig verändert, in A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949), p. 443 books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=2Q19hMwsNgYC&pg=PA443&dq=neat
Demokratenspiegel. Missverhältnis in der Vertretung in den USA http://mencken.atspace.org/mencken5.htm
Original englisch: "The typical democrat is quite willing to exchange any of the theoretical boons of freedom for something that he can use."
Demokratenspiegel
Demokratenspiegel. Die Zukunft der Demokratie http://mencken.atspace.org/mencken9_3.htm
Original englisch: "Whatever the label on the parties, or the war cries issuing from the demagogues who lead them, the practical choice is between the plutocracy on the one side and a rabble of preposterous impossibilists on the other."
Demokratenspiegel
Aus dem Wörterbuch "Jazz Webster". Autorisierte Übersetzung von Thea Maria Lenz. In: DAS TAGE-BUCH. Berlin, 17. Februar 1923, Heft 7 Jahrg. 4. S. 222 archive.org http://archive.org/stream/DasTage-buch19231.Halbjahr/DasTage-buch1923-1#page/n231/mode/2up/search/jazz+webster
(Original englisch: "IDEALIST. One who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup." - XI. The Jazz Webster. In: A Book of Burlesques. New York 1920. p. 205 gutenberg.org http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22145/22145-h/22145-h.htm#XI_THE_JAZZ_WEBSTER
"An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it is also more nourishing" - A Few Pages of Notes. In: The Smart Set: A Magazine of Cleverness, vol. 45, 1915. p. 435 books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=hXVHAAAAYAAJ&q=idealist [unter dem Pseudonym William Drayham], A Little Book in C Major. New York John Lane 1916. p. 19 archive.org http://archive.org/stream/littlebookcmajor00mencrich#page/19/mode/2up)
Zitiert bei Richard Dawkins: Der Gotteswahn. Ullstein Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3550086881. Übersetzer: Sebastian Vogel. S. 44
Original englisch: "We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart." - Minority report - H.L. Mencken's Notebooks. Knopf 1956. p. 3. Vorabdruck in LIFE 20. Februar 1956 p. 76 rechts oben
Zitiert in einem Brief von Timothy McVeigh an Gore Vidal vom 28. Februar 1999. Abgedruckt in Gore Vidal: Die Bedeutung von Timothy McVeigh. In Gore Vidal: Ewiger Krieg für ewigen Frieden. Aus dem Amerikanischen übersetzt von Bernhard Jendricke und Barbara Steckhan. EVA Hamburg 3. Aufl. 2002 (Original "The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh", in Vanity Fair September 2001 vanityfair.com http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2001/09/mcveigh200109 4. Abschnitt)
"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - über Ezra Pound. Prejudices, First Series. New York 1919. Chapter 6: "The New Poetry Movement", p. 90. docsouth.unc.edu http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/mencken/mencken.html
„Die Ehe ist eine wunderbare Einrichtung, aber wer möchte in einer Einrichtung leben?“
Variante: Die Ehe ist eine wunderbare Institution, aber wer möchte schon in einer Institution leben?
Henry Louis Mencken: Zitate auf Englisch
“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)
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1910s, Prejudices, First Series (1919)
"Why Liberty?”, in the Chicago Tribune (30 January 1927)
1920s
Kontext: 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.”
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
1920s, Notes on Democracy (1926)
Kontext: 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.
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
Kontext: 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.
