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
The nature documentaries are as absurdly action-packed as the soap operas, where a life’s worth of divorce, adultery, and sudden death are crammed into a weeks worth of watching — trying to understand “nature” from watching Wild Kingdom is as tough as trying to understand “life” from watching Dynasty.
Bill McKibben (b. 1960) American environmentalist, writer
The Age of Missing Information
Man has no nobler function than to defend the truth.
Ruth McKenney (1911-1999) American writer
(Attributed)
Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Peter T. McIntyre
No man should advocate a course in private that he’s ashamed to admit in public.
George McGovern (1922-2012) American historian, author, politician
(Attributed)
Bernard [of Clairvaux] did not stop with love for God or Christ, he insisted also that the Christian must love his neighbors, including even his enemies. Not necessarily that he must feel affection for them — that is not always possible in this life, though it will be in heaven — but that he must treat them as love dictates, doing always for others what he would that they should do for him.
Arthur Cushman "A. C." McGiffert (1861-1933) American religious historian, theologian
A History of Christian Thought
The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is its inefficiency.
Eugene McCarthy (1916-2005) American politician, poet, activist
(Attributed)
None of us have all the heaven we want. Only poor deluded creatures are perfectly happy, and the Lord permits no delusions in His Home.
Donald McCaig (1940-2018) American writer, essayist, sheep farmer [pseud. Steven Ashley]
(Attributed)
It’s the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance.
It’s the dream afraid of waking that never takes the chance.
It’s the one who won’t be taken, who cannot seem to give,
And the soul afraid of dyin’ that never learns to live.Amanda McBroom (b. 1947) American singer-songwriter, actress
“The Rose”
When the night has been too lonely and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows
Lies the seed that, with the sun’s love, in the spring becomes the rose.Amanda McBroom (b. 1947) American singer-songwriter, actress
“The Rose”
Slumber not in the tents of your fathers. The world is advancing.
Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872) Italian social reformer
(Attributed)
Hate is not the opposite of love; apathy is.
Laugh at yourself first, before anyone else can.
Elsa Maxwell (1883-1963) American gossip columnist, author, songwriter, professional hostess
Column (28 Sep 1958)
Democracy is liberty plus economic security. We Americans want to pray, think as we please — and eat regularly.
Mary Maverick (1906-1976) American peace activist [Mary Maverick Lloyd]
(Attributed)
The value of the average conversation could be enormously improved by the constant use of four simple words: “I do not know.”
André Maurois (1885-1967) French author [b. Émile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog]
(Attributed)
Often we allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. We lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that, in a year’s time, will be forgotten by us and by everybody.
André Maurois (1885-1967) French author [b. Émile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog]
(Attributed)
In literature, as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.
[En littérature comme en amour, on est surpris par les choix des autres.]
André Maurois (1885-1967) French author [b. Émile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog]
The Art of Living [Un Art de Vivre], ch. 6 “The Art of Working” (1939) [tr. Whitall (1940)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Sometimes cited to the New York Times, but only because it was reprinted there in the article “Reading Matter: Some Bookish Quotes” (14 Apr 1963).
Law and order is like patriotism — anyone who comes on strong about patriotism has got something to hide — it never fails. They always turn out to be a crook or an asshole or a traitor or something.
Bill Mauldin (1921-2003) American editorial cartoonist, writer
Interview by Donald R. Katz, “Bill Mauldin: Drawing Fire,” Rolling Stone (4 Nov 1976)
(Source)
An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright [William Somerset Maugham]
(Attributed)
My own belief is that there is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright [William Somerset Maugham]
(Attributed)
I would sooner read a timetable or a catalog than nothing at all.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright [William Somerset Maugham]
(Attributed)
What mean and cruel things men do for the love of God.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright [William Somerset Maugham]
A Writer’s Notebook
I have not been afraid of excess: excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright [William Somerset Maugham]
The Summing Up, ch. 15 (1938)
She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright [William Somerset Maugham]
“The Creative Impulse” (1931)
(Source)
The original version of the story in Harper's Bazaar (Aug 1926) does not include this phrase. (The story may also be the origin of the phrase "who-done-it" / "whodunit" for a mystery.)
Variant: "The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit."
The even-more-brief "Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit" is often misattributed to Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, and Voltaire; it is not found in their works.
More discussion about this quotation: Quotation Is a Serviceable Substitute for Wit – Quote Investigator.
It is not difficult to be unconventional in the eyes of the world when your unconventionality is but the convention of your set.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright [William Somerset Maugham]
The Moon and Sixpence
Never give a person more power than he can use, for use it he will.
Cotton Mather (1663-1728) American Puritan clergyman, writer
(Attributed)
All that the Devil asks is acquiescence … not struggle, not conflict. Acquiescence.
Suzanne Massie (contemp.) American writer, Russian historian
(Attributed)
Admit your errors before someone else exaggerates them.
Andrew V. Mason (contemp.) American surgeon, author
(Attributed)
Sainthood emerges when you can listen to someone’s tale of woe and not respond with a description of your own.
Andrew V. Mason (contemp.) American surgeon, author
(Attributed)
If the only tool you have is a hammer, it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail.
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) American psychologist
The Psychology of Science (1966)
Variant: "When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail."
I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act. The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) American psychologist
(Attributed)