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
“Love is the delusion that one woman differs from another.”
Sententiæ
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
“My business is not prognosis, but diagnosis. I am not engaged in therapeutics, but in pathology.”
1920s, Notes on Democracy (1926)
"Coda" from Smart Set (December 1920)
1920s
“Poverty is a soft pedal upon the branches of human activity, not excepting the spiritual.”
Quelle: 1910s, A Book of Prefaces (1917), Ch. 4
“I don't have prejudice, I hate everyone equally.”
Attributed in The Mammoth Book of Jokes (2006) edited by Geoff Tibbals; no earlier citation yet located.
Disputed
On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe (1920-1936), p. 279
1920s
A Little Book in C Major, New York, NY, John Lane Company (1916) p. 76
1910s
"The American: His New Puritanism," http://books.google.com/books?id=tn9HAAAAYAAJ&q=%22If+there+is+one+mental+vice+indeed+which+sets+off+the+American+people+from+all+other+folks+who+walk+the+earth%22+%22it+is+that+of%22+%22that+every+human+act+must+be+either+right+or+wrong+and+that+ninety-nine+percent+of+them+are+wrong%22&pg=RA1-PA87#v=onepage The Smart Set (February 1914)
1910s
The American Mercury (May 1933), p. 136
1930s
1920s, Notes on Democracy (1926)
“Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.”
Quelle: 1920s, Prejudices, Third Series (1922), Ch. 3
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
“Jealousy is the theory that some other fellow has just as little taste.”
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
“The lunatic fringe wags the underdog.”
Sententiæ: The Citizen and the State
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
“A man may be a fool and not know it — but not if he is married.”
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (1908), pg. 217
1900s
35
1940s–present, Minority Report : H.L. Mencken's Notebooks (1956)
1920s, Notes on Democracy (1926)
Quelle: 1920s, Prejudices, Third Series (1922), Ch. 15 "The Dismal Science"
On elected politicians
1920s, Notes on Democracy (1926)
“When women kiss, it always reminds one of prize-fighters shaking hands.”
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
Quelle: Google Books http://books.google.com/books?id=TqEFAQAAIAAJ&q=%22when+women+kiss+it+always+reminds+one+of+prize+fighters+shaking+hands%22&pg=PA619#v=onepage
“Bachelors know more about women than married men. If they didn't, they'd be married, too.”
A Little Book in C major http://books.google.com/books?id=EAJbAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Bachelors+know+more+about+women+than+married+men+If+they+didn't+they'd+be+married+too%22&pg=PA61#v=onepage (1916) ; later published in A Mencken Crestomathy (1949)
1910s
Quelle: 1910s, A Book of Prefaces (1917), Ch. 2
Sententiæ: The Citizen and the State
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
June 10, 1944
1940s–present, The Diary of H.L. Mencken (1989)
213
1940s–present, Minority Report : H.L. Mencken's Notebooks (1956)
