"It is a peculiarity of the American..." - Quote by H L Mencken

“Next to the semi-colon, quotation marks seem to be the chief butts of reformatory ardor.”

“During many a single week, I daresay, more money is spent in New York upon useless and evil things than would suffice to run the kingdom of Denmark for a year.”

“What ass first let loose the doctrine that the suffrage is a high boon and voting a noble privilege?”

“The two principles of truth, reason and senses, are not only both not genuine, but are engaged in mutual deception. The senses deceive reason through false appearances, and the senses are disturbed by passions, which produce false impressions.”

“Philosophy lives in words, but truth and fact well up into our lives in ways that exceed verbal formulation. There is in the living act of perception always something that glimmers and twinkles and will not be caught, and for which reflection comes too late.”

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”

“And even should the cloud of barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and libraries of Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty to them.”

“We would do the same thing that America did when the Jap[an] - when, when Pearl Harbor was attacked. America defended itself. They said praise the Lord, but they passed the ammunition.”

“But you see, a rich country like America can perhaps afford to be stupid.”