Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Minority Report. HL Mencken. Significant Sentences 13.

Significant sentences from HL Mencken's Minority Report, acerbic thoughts o American life and culture.

"Artists can seldom account for their own work...." p. 188.

"The process of creation is only partly intellectual; the rest of it seems to be based on instinct rather than on idea." p. 188.

"One of the things that makes a Negro unpleasant to white folk is the fact that he suffers from their injustice." p. 189.

"Every man is intrinsically anti-social." p. 191.

G.K. Chesterton's method: "...four-fifths of his essays start off by citing something that is generally believed and then seeks to demolish it...." p. 194.

"People crave certainties in this world and are hostile to 'ifs' and 'buts.' " p. 199.

James I of England in 1621: "I will govern according to the common weal, but not according to the common will." p. 203.

"It is not materialism that is the chief curse of the world...but idealism." p. 211.

Abraham Lincoln, Peoria Speech, Oct. 16, 1854: "No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent." p. 215.

"In every 100 of the men composing the government there are two who are honest and intelligent, ten obvious scoundrels and 88 poor fish." p. 221.

"The men who fought for self-determination at Gettysburg were not the federals but the Confederates." p. 233.

"The so-called philosophy of India has found its natural home in Los Angeles, the capital of American idiots." p. 224.

No comments: