Damn! Quotes

“Congress consists of one-third, more or less, scoundrels; two-thirds, more or less, idiots; and three-thirds, more or less, poltroons.”
― H. L. Mencken, Damn!

“I do not pretend, of course, that I have never done it; mere politeness forces one to it; there are women who sulk and grow bellicose unless one at least makes the motions of kissing them. But what I mean is that I have never found the act a tenth part as agreeable as poets, the authors of musical comedy librettos, and (on the contrary side) chaperones and the gendarmerie make it out. The physical sensation, far from being pleasant, is intensely uncomfortable—the suspension of respiration, indeed, quickly resolves itself into a feeling of suffocation—and the posture necessitated by the approximation of lips and lips is unfailingly a constrained and ungraceful one. Theoretically, a man kisses a woman perpendicularly, with their eyes, those "windows of the soul," synchronizing exactly. But actually, on account of the incompressibility of the nasal cartilages, he has to incline either his or her head to an angle of at least 60 degrees, and the result is that his right eye gazes insanely at the space between her eyebrows, while his left eye is fixed upon some vague spot behind her. An instantaneous photograph of such a maneuvre, taken at the moment of incidence, would probably turn the stomach of even the most romantic man, and force him, in sheer self-respect, to renounce kissing as he has renounced leap-frog and walking on stilts.”
― H.L. Mencken, Damn!

“THE ROOT OF RELIGION The idea of literal truth crept into religion relatively late: it is the invention of lawyers, priests and cheese-mongers. The idea of mystery long preceded it, and at the heart of that idea of mystery was an idea of beauty—that is, an idea that this or that view of the celestial and infernal process presented a satisfying picture of form, rhythm and organization. Once this view was adopted as satisfying, its professional interpreters and their dupes sought to reinforce it by declaring it true. The same flow of reasoning is familiar on lower planes. The average man does not get pleasure out of an idea because he thinks it is true; he thinks it is true because he gets pleasure out of it.”
― H.L. Mencken, Damn!

“Whenever a first-rate intellect tackles it, as in the case of Huxley, or in that of Leo XIII., it at once takes on all the sinister fascination it had in Luther's day.”
― H.L. Mencken, Damn! A Book of Calumny

“They are brothers to the fox who boasted that he had made the hounds run....”
― H.L. Mencken, Damn! A Book of Calumny

“Importuna coisa é a felicidade alheia quando somos vítima de algum infortúnio”
― H. L. Mencken, Damn! A Book Of Calumny

“O pior governo é o mais moral. Um governo composto de cínicos é frequentemente mais tolerante e humano. Mas, quando os fanáticos tomam o poder, não há limite para a opressão”
― H. L. Mencken, Damn! A Book Of Calumny

“Pode ser um pecado pensar mal dos outros, mas raramente sera um engano”
― H. L. Mencken, Damn! A Book Of Calumny

“A democracia é a arte e ciência de administrar o circo a partir da jaula dos macacos”
― H. L. Mencken, Damn! A Book Of Calumny

“Não importa o quanto uma mulher seja feliz no casamento. Sempre lhe agradará saber que há um sujeito simpatico e atraente desejando que ela não fosse”
― H. L. Mencken, Damn! A Book Of Calumny

“O amor é a ilusão de que uma mulher difere da outra”
― H. L. Mencken, Damn! A Book Of Calumny

“Os homens são os únicos animais que se devotam diariamente a tornar os outros infelizes. É uma arte como outra qualquer. Seus virtuoses são chamados de altruístas”
― H. L. Mencken, Damn! A Book Of Calumny

“A consciência é uma voz interior que nos adverte de que alguém pode estar olhando”
― H. L. Mencken, Damn! A Book Of Calumny