Генри Луис Менкен: Цитаты на английском языке (страница 7)

“Nevertheless, it is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.”

“Don’t overestimate the decency of the human race.”

“Religion is a conceited effort to deny the most obvious realities.”

“Creator — A comedian whose audience is afraid to laugh.”

“Genius: the ability to prolong one's childhood.”

“American journalism (like the journalism of any other country) is predominantly paltry and worthless. Its pretensions are enormous, but its achievements are insignificant.”

“Sunday school: A prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.”

“Judge — A law student who marks his own examination-papers.”

“To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true!”

“Penetrating so many secrets, we cease to believe in the unknowable. But there it sits nevertheless, calmly licking its chops”

“Historian — An unsuccessful novelist.”

“I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone.”

“Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.”

“If the average man is made in God's image, then such a man as Beethoven oris plainly superior to God….”

“Adultery is the application of democracy to love.”

“It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods. If such a board actually exists it operates precisely like the board of a corporation that is losing money.”

“The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.”

“Public opinion, in its raw state, gushes out in the immemorial form of the mob's fear. It is piped into central factories, and there it is flavoured and coloured and put into cans.”

“Philosophy consists very largely of one philosopher arguing that all others are jackasses. He usually proves it, and I should add that he also usually proves that he is one himself.”