The Mencken Society

Promoting the living works of Henry Louis Mencken, the "Sage of Baltimore"

  • A celebrity is one who is known to many persons he is glad he doesn’t know.
  • Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.
  • Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
  • Every man is his own hell.
  • Historian – An unsuccessful novelist.
  • Misogynist – A man who hates women as much as women hate one another.
  • Optimist – The sort of man who marries his sister’s best friend.
  • Puritanism – The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy. 
  • The kind of man who demands that government enforce his ideas is always the kind whose ideas are idiotic.
  • The life of man in this world is like the life of a fly in a room filled with 100 boys, each armed with a fly-swatter.
  • The New Deal began, like the Salvation Army, by promising to save humanity.  It ended, again like the Salvation Army began, by running flop-houses and disturbing the peace.
  • Wealth – Any income that is at least $100 more a year than the income of one’s wife’s sister’s husband.

Promoting the living works of Henry Louis Mencken, the "Sage of Baltimore"

  • Der Tag 2024

    September 14, 2024 (Saturday) Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathederal St 10:30 AM Annual Meeting of The Mencken Society. Speakers: Fred Hobson by way of remote conferencing and a discussion between John Barr, professor of history at Lone Star College, and Darryl Hart. 2:00 PM The 2024 Mencken Memorial Lecture will be presented by Thomas…

  • No Free Lance Today, August 10, 1911

    An item in the occasional series on “The Law, Lawyers and Law Makers” appeared on this day instead of a Free Lance column. The item was the third part of Raymond S. William’s “The State’s Attorney”.

  • No Free Lance Today, August 9, 1911

    An item in the occasional series on “The Law, Lawyers and Law Makers” appeared on this day instead of a Free Lance column. The item was a continuation of Raymond S. William’s “The State’s Attorney”.

  • The Free Lance 75, August 8, 1911

    The Free Lance, August 8, 1911.

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  • No Free Lance Today, August 7, 1911

    An item in the occasional series on “The Law, Lawyers and Law Makers” appeared on this day instead of a Free Lance column. The item was Raymond B. Williams, “The State’s Attorney”.

  • No Free Lance Today, August 5, 1911

    An item in the occasional series on “The Law, Lawyers and Law Makers” appeared on this day instead of a Free Lance column. The item was Eli Frank, “Recording Land Titles”.

© The Mencken Society 2022