The American Nietzsche…
In her online biography, Karen De Coster lauded H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956) and endorsed one of his well known and oft quoted lines, which I learned through the link she so thoughtfully provided, is simply the ending of his longer statement known as Mencken’s Creed:
I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind - that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.
I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious.
I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war upon liberty…
I believe that the evidence for immortality is no better than the evidence of witches, and deserves no more respect.
I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech…
I believe in the capacity of man to conquer his world, and to find out what it is made of, and how it is run.
I believe in the reality of progress.
I - But the whole thing, after all, may be put very simply. I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.
To be sure, Mencken had much to say that might be found provocative or controversial, even inflammatory by some, but the clear crispness of his three sentence summary (bolded at the end of the quotation) is easy for all free and independent thinking people to purchase. The guiding beacon on the shore dims at times as it circumnavigates its prescribed course, but it does not fail in its mission to provide a valuable marker for all who travel within its purview.
3 Comments so far
I love those last three sentences, too. When I devised my own credo, I came to a very similar conclusion.
I hate writing Me, too! comments, but while I cannot subscribe 100% to the main list, I see that the highlighted three are mine also. I guess I’m lucky to have little power or wealth so I’m not tempted to compromise, (unlike certain others we see daily on the news).
I do not endorse his religious views at all. For that matter, I don’t endorse every line of Shakespeare. But both use English so exquisitely that reading them is sheer pleasure even when they are wrong.