Monday, June 20, 2016

Philadelphia is the most pecksniffian of American cities, and thus probably leads the world.

In looking up one quote by H.L. Mencken, I come across several others, all serving to illustrate his intellectual allure despite the passage of a century and the evolution of social sentiments.

From "On Truth" in Damn! A Book of Calumny (1918), p. 53
The final test of truth is ridicule. Very few dogmas have ever faced it and survived. ... But the razor edge of ridicule is turned by the tough hide of truth.
From The American Language (1919)
Philadelphia is the most pecksniffian of American cities, and thus probably leads the world.
"The Incomparable Buzzsaw", The Smart Set, May 1919
The allurement that [women] hold out to men is precisely the allurement that Cape Hatteras holds out to sailors: they are enormously dangerous and hence enormously fascinating.
"Duty Before Security", The Smart Set, June 1919
Women have a hard time of it in this world. They are oppressed by man-made laws, man-made social customs, masculine egoism, the delusion of masculine superiority. Their one comfort is the assurance that, even though it may be impossible to prevail against man, it is always possible to enslave and torture a man.

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