Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) French-American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
(Attributed)
We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginning all our lives.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) French-American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
(Attributed)
Thus, we never see the one truth that would help us begin to solve our ethical and political problems: that we are all more or less wrong.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) French-American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
“New Seeds of Contemplation”
My life and death are not purely and simply my own business. I live by and for others, and my death involves others.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) French-American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
(Attributed)
The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) French-American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
“Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander”
The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) French-American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
(Attributed)
The things I thought were so important — because of the effort I put into them — have turned out to be of small value. And the things I never thought about, the things I was never able to either to measure or to expect, were the things that mattered.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) French-American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
(Attributed)
I think a man is known better by his questions than by his answers.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) French-American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, ch. 5 (1965)
Kissing don’t last: cookery do!
George Meredith (1828-1909) English novelist and poet
The Ordeal of Richard Feveral, ch. 24 (1859)
(Source)
A God Who could be served in only one way is too small a God for me.
Menachem Mendel of Kotzk (1787-1859) Polish Hassidic philosopher, rabbi
(Attributed)
Do not be satisfied with the speech of your lips and the thought in your heart, all the promises and good sayings in your mouth, and all the good thoughts in your heart; rather you must arise and do!
Menachem Mendel of Kotzk (1787-1859) Polish Hassidic philosopher, rabbi
(Attributed)
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
(Attributed)
The man who is thought to be poor never gets a fair chance. No one wants to listen to him. No one gives a damn what he thinks or knows or feels. No one has any desire for his good opinion. I discovered this principle early in life, and have put it to use ever since.
I have got a great deal more out of men (and women) by having the name of being a well-heeled fellow than I have ever got by being decent to them, or by dazzling them with my sagacity, or by hard industry, or by a personal beauty that is singular and ineffable.H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“Smart Set” (May 1920)
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
In Defense of Women, ch. 13 (1918)
The value the world sets upon motives is often grossly unjust and inaccurate. Consider, for example, two of them: mere insatiable curiosity and the desire to do good. The latter is put high above the former, and yet it is the former that moves one of the most useful men the human race has yet produced: the scientific investigator. What actually urges him on is not some brummagem idea of Service, but a boundless, almost pathological thirst to penetrate the unknown, to uncover the secret, to find out what has not been found out before. His prototype is not the liberator releasing slaves, the good Samaritan lifting up the fallen, but a dog sniffing tremendously at an infinite series of rat-holes.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
Smart Set (Aug 1919)
The chief value of money lies in the fact that one lives in a world in which it is overestimated.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
(Attributed)
We are apt to forget that a great man is thus not only great, but also a man: that a philosopher, in a life time, spends less hours pondering the destiny of the race than he gives over to wondering if it will rain tomorrow and to meditating upon the toughness of steaks.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
(Attributed)
Most people want security in this world, not liberty.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
(Attributed)
Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
Prejudices, Third Series (1922)
There comes a time in every normal man’s life when he must be tempted to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag and begin slitting throats.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
Prejudices: First Series (1919)
The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
(Attributed)
Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“The Divine Afflatus,” New York Evening Mail (16 Nov 1917)
(Source)
Reprinted in Prejudices: Second Series (1920) and A Mencken Chrestomathy, ch. 25 (1949).
Variants:
- "There is always an easy solution to every human problem -- neat, plausible, and wrong."
- "For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong."
Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
(Attributed)
(also attrib Susan Ertz)
SELF-RESPECT: The secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
A Book of Burlesques, ch. 11 (1920)
CLERGYMAN: A ticket speculator outside the gates of Heaven.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
(Attributed)
We owe to capital the fact that the medical profession, for example, is now really useful to mankind, whereas formerly it was useful only to the charlatans who practiced it. It took accumulated money to provide the long training that medicine began to demand as it slowly lifted itself from the level of a sorry trade to that of a dignified art and science — money to keep the student while he studied and his teachers while they instructed him, and more money to pay for the expensive housing and materials that they needed. In the main, all that money came from private capitalists. But whether it came from private capitalists or from the common treasury, it was always capital, which is to say, it was always part of an accumulated surplus. It never could have been provided out of the hand-to-mouth income of a non-capitalistic society.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
Baltimore Evening Sun (14 Jan 1935)
An historian is an unsuccessful novelist.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
A Little Book in C Major, ch. 7, § 21 (1916)
(Source)
Variants:
HISTORIAN. An unsuccessful novelist.
[A Book of Burlesques, "The Jazz Webster" (1924)]
Historian - An unsuccessful novelist.
[Chrestomathy, ch. 30 "Sententiae" (1949)]
Fear of death and fear of life both become piety.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
Minority Report: H.L. Mencken’s Notebooks (1956)
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 are smart.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
Minority Report: H.L. Mencken’s Notebooks, # 1 (1956)
(Source)
Penetrating so many secrets, we cease to believe in the unknowable. But there it sits nevertheless, calmly licking its chops.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
(Attributed)
Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule — and both commonly succeed, and are right.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
Minority Report (1956)
We are here and it is now. Further than that all human knowledge is moonshine.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
(Attributed)
Every third American devotes himself to improving and uplifting his fellow-citizens, usually by force.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
Prejudices
What should be obvious and indisputable requires a public ceremonial to prove it! Why not a day for wearing little tin bathtubs to prove that one bathes, in the patriotic American manner, once a week? Why not white hatbands for gentlemen who are true to their wives? It is precisely the mark of the cad that he makes a public boast of what is inseparable from decency. He is the fellow who marches grandly in preparedness parades to show off his valor, his patriotism, his willingness to die for his country. He is the fellow who insults his mother by making a spectacle of the fact that he is on good terms with her.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
Baltimore Evening Sun (13 Jun. 1916)
(on Mothers Day and wearing carnations to proclaim love for one's mother)
The most a lawyer ever demands of the victim before him is that he be hanged, but the meekest clergyman is constantly proposing to doom his opponents to endless tortures in lakes of boiling brimstone.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
Baltimore Evening Sun (17 Dec. 1927)
It is hard to believe that a man is telling you the truth when you know you would lie if you were in his place.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
A Little Book in C Major, ch. 2, § 15 (1916)
(Source)
Variants:
CONFIDENCE. The feeling that makes one believe a man, even when one knows that one would lie in his place.
[A Book of Burlesques, "The Jazz Webster" (1924)]
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
A Little Book in C Major, ch. 2, § 1 (1916)
(Source)
A home is not a mere transient shelter: its essence lies in the personalities of the people who live in it.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
(Attributed)
Let not a man do what his sense of right bids him not to do, nor desire what it forbids him to desire. This is sufficient. The skillful artist will not alter his measures for the sake of a stupid workman
Mencius (371-278 B.C.) Chinese philosopher
(Attributed)
It is better to fail at originality than to succeed at imitation.
Herman Melville (1819-1891) American writer
(Attributed)
A leader who does not hesitate before he sends his nation to battle is not fit to be a leader.
Golda Meir (1898-1978) Russian-American-Israeli politician, teacher; Prime Minister of Israel (1969-1974)
(Attributed)
Today the world changes so quickly that in growing up we take leave not just of youth but of the world we were young in. Fear and resentment of what is new is really a lament for the memories of our childhood.
Peter Medawar (1915-1987) British biologist, Nobel laureate
(Attributed)
Who Moved My Cheese? calendar, 2002
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead (1901-1978) American anthropologist
(Attributed)
Phrase frequently attributed to Mead, but not found in her writings. The first sentence, however, is trademarked.
Mead founded the Institute for Intercultural Studies in 1944 (it dissolved in 2009). Regarding this quote, the IIS noted on its still extant website:
We have been unable to locate when and where it was first cited, becoming a motto for many organizations and movements. We believe it probably came into circulation through a newspaper report of something said spontaneously and informally. We know, however, that it was firmly rooted in her professional work and that it reflected a conviction that she expressed often, in different contexts and phrasings.
Additional discussion about this quotation's origins: Never Doubt That a Small Group of Thoughtful, Committed Citizens Can Change the World; Indeed, It’s the Only Thing That Ever Has – Quote Investigator.
Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.
Margaret Mead (1901-1978) American anthropologist
“Mead’s Maxim”
(in John Peers, comp., 1,001 Logical Laws, p. 155, 1979)
Jealousy is not a barometer by which the depth of love can be read. It merely records the degree of the lover’s insecurity.
Margaret Mead (1901-1978) American anthropologist
(Attributed)
One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don’t come home at night.
Margaret Mead (1901-1978) American anthropologist
(Attributed)
Sometimes given "Having someone wonder where you are when you don't come home at night is a very old human need."
I’m a confirmed negaholic. I don’t just see a glass that’s half full and call it half-empty; I see a glass that’s completely full and worry that someone’s going to tip it over.
Peter McWilliams (1950-2000) American writer
You Can’t Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought, [Rev Ed.] (1995)
To overcome a fear, here’s all you have to do: realize the fear is there, and do the action you fear anyway.
Peter McWilliams (1950-2000) American writer
You Can’t Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought, [Rev. Ed.] (1995)
I see nothing wrong with the human trait to desire. In fact, I consider it integral to our success mechanism. Becoming attached to what we desire is what causes the trouble. If you must have it in order to be happy, then you are denying the happiness of the here and now.
Peter McWilliams (1950-2000) American writer
You Can’t Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought, [Rev. Ed.] (1995)
KINT: To a cop the explanation’s always simple. There’s no mystery to the street, no arch-criminal behind it all. It if you find a body and you think his brother did it, you’re gonna find out you’re right.
Christopher McQuarrie (b. 1968) American screenwriter, director
The Usual Suspects (1995)
KINT: How do you shoot the devil in the back? What if you miss?
Christopher McQuarrie (b. 1968) American screenwriter, director
The Usual Suspects (1995)
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.
Christopher McQuarrie (b. 1968) American screenwriter, director
The Usual Suspects [Kint] (1995)
Kint gives this line twice: first about an hour into the movie, and second as one of its final lines.
See Baudelaire.
Nothing determines who we will become so much as those things we choose to ignore.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Sandor McNab
Yes, risk-taking is inherently failure-prone. Otherwise, it would be called sure-thing-taking.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Tim McMahon