“Progress: The process whereby the human race has got rid of whiskers, the vermiform appendix and God.”

— H. L. Mencken, A Book of Burlesques, 1916

About H. L. Mencken

1880 – 1956

American journalist and critic, known for "The American Language".

“The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.”

“A man may be a fool and not know it—but not if he is married.”

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

“A whole is that which has beginning, middle, and end.”

“Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.”

“All becoming and growing—all that guarantees a future—involves pain.”

“The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.”

“Things have their root and their branches. Affairs have their end and their beginning.”