What is the function that a clergyman performs in the world? Answer: He gets his living by assuring idiots that he can save them from an imaginary hell.
H. L. MenckenAll talk of winning the people by appealing to their intelligence, of conquering them by impeccable syllogism, is so much moonshine.
H. L. MenckenPastor: One employed by the wicked to prove to them by his example that virtue doesn't pay.
H. L. MenckenNo article of faith is proof against the disintegrating effects of increasing information; one might almost describe the acquirement of knowledge as a process of disillusion.
H. L. Mencken