The essence of science is that it is always willing to abandon a given idea for a better one; the essence of theology is that it holds its truths to … - H. L. Mencken

To the man with an ear for verbal delicacies — the man who searches painfully for the perfect word, and puts the way of saying a thing above the thing said — there is in writing the constant joy of sudden discovery, of happy accident.

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are.

No matter how happily a woman may be married, it always pleases her to discover that there is a nice man who wishes that she were not.