I know of no existing nation that deserves to live, and I know of very few individuals.
H. L. MenckenMen become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in their readiness to doubt.
H. L. MenckenThe aim of poetry, it appears, is to fill the mind with lofty thoughts--not to give it joy, but to give it a grand and somewhat gaudy sense of virtue. The essay is a weapon against the degenerate tendencies of the age. The novel, properly conceived, is a means of uplifting the spirit; its aim is to inspire, not merely to satisfy the low curiosity of man in man.
H. L. Mencken