I’m not ashamed to admit that I have heroes. These include, in no particular order, Adam Smith, Richard Cobden and John Bright, Frederic Bastiat, France’s Henry IV, Voltaire, John D. Rockefeller, Milton Friedman, Leonard Read, and (of course) F.A. Hayek. Also on this list is the Bard of Baltimore, H.L. Mencken. Today’s edition of the Washington Post published this letter of mine on Mencken:
J. McDonald Kennedy’s encomium for the Baltimore Sun
[letters, Jan. 24] failed to mention what is perhaps the Sun’s finest
contribution not only to journalism but to American letters and wisdom:
the great reporter H.L. Mencken.
Mencken’s style and philosophy of vigorous journalism were on display when he wrote in 1942:
"In my day a reporter who took an assignment was fully on his own
until he got back to the office, and even then he was little molested
until his copy was turned in at the desk; today he tends to become only
a homunculus at the end of a telephone wire, and the reduction of his
observations to prose is commonly farmed out to literary castrati who
never leave the office, and hence never feel the wind of the world in
their faces or see anything with their own eyes."
DONALD J. BOUDREAUX
This quotation is from Mencken’s 1942 memoir Newspaper Days.
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H.L. Mencken: “literary castrati who never leave the office, and hence never feel the wind of the world in their faces or see anything with their own eyes."
Exactly applicable to how the officers in the credit rating agencies are financials castrati who never leave the offices and hence never get a feel for what stuff real world collaterals are really made of.
My favorite Mencken quote mixes both politics and religion:
It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods.
Alistair Cooke did a great book on Mencken that I loaned out but never saw again.
Ahhh yes, Mencken.
“A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier.”
"No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby."
"Most people are unable to write because they are unable to think, and they are unable to think because they congenitally lack the equipment to do so, just as they congenitally lack the equipment to fly over the moon."
And,
"A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar."
Among my all-time favorite Mencken quips is this one (penned, I think, in 1924): "The saddest life is that of a political aspirant under democracy. His failure is ignominious and his success is disgraceful."
My favorite:
"Every election is a sort of advance auction of stolen goods."
…and, an extended version of Alan's quote, which is so priceless, I think I've quoted it a dozen times here or there:
The missing book in question is, I believe, "The Vintage Mencken." Cooke also wrote a wonderful profile of Mencken (along with Bertrand Russell, Charlie Chaplin, Adlai Stevenson, Edward VIII, and Bogart) in his book, "Six Men." That was where I first read Mencken's definition of puritanism: "the haunting fear that someone somewhere may be happy."
In that same book, Cooke also had a devastating assessment of the Duke of Windsor: "The most damning epitaph you can compose about Edward VIII–as a Prince, as a King, as a man–is one that all comfortable people should cower from deserving: He was at his best only when the going was good." If I didn't know better, I'd swear that Mencken penned that.
Thanks to Don for this diversion, Mencken along with Disreali are two of my favorites, my heros if you will.
Thanks to MesaEconoguy for the quotes I hadn't read, particularly this one:
"Most people are unable to write because they are unable to think, and they are unable to think because they congenitally lack the equipment to do so, just as they congenitally lack the equipment to fly over the moon."
Lord lord! Isn't it the truth.
In that vain I keep this one that I like:
In reference to a Prof. Veblen's theory of conspicuous consumption Mencken said, "Starting off with a platitude, he ended in absurdity."
It fits so many of the leftist postings on this blog.
My first exposure to Mencken was with his introduction to Nietzsche's "The Anti-Christ". Unfortunately for Mencken, they were perfect for each other.
Cooke's book, Six Men, was my first introduction to Mencken. I feel deprived that I did not receive this book until I graduated…from college. This man should be discussed in as a great of detail as "the Crooner."
Just re-reading Mencken quotations. They're all good, but this one seems worth posting;
"If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl."