tragic vanity
immense indifference of
things, of blind groping

Part of the Mencken Project.

From A Book of Prefaces, by H. L. Mencken., 1917

Adapted from the line:

.. forever fascinated by the “immense indifference of things,”

the tragic vanity of the blind groping that we call aspiration,

the profound meaninglessness of life — fascinated, and left wondering.‘

This the complete quote:

Like Dreiser, Conrad is forever fascinated by the “immense indifference of things,” the tragic vanity of the blind groping that we call aspiration, the profound meaninglessness of life—fascinated, and left wondering. One looks in vain for an attempt at a solution of the riddle in the whole canon of his work. Dreiser, more than once, seems ready to take refuge behind an indeterminate sort of mysticism, even a facile supernaturalism, but Conrad, from first to last, faces squarely the massive and intolerable fact.

deal with any subject
remain both readable and
irresponsible

Part of the Mencken Project.

In 1911, HL Mencken was offered a column in by the owner/publisher of the Baltimore Sun, Charles H. Grasty.

Grasty told him Mencken to write ANYTHING he liked and to deal with ANY SUBJECT just so long as the column was irresponsible and readable.

Do such job offers exist any more?

One commenter writes: “On May 8, 1911, H. L. Mencken began a column in the Baltimore Evening Sun entitled “The World in Review.” The next day he retitled it “The Free Lance”—and continued writing the column six days a week for the next four and a half years. This enormous body of work, totaling about 1200 columns and amounting to 1.5 million words, is an incredibly rich storehouse of Mencken’s opinions on a wide array of topics. In some columns he addresses serious issues: the distressing prevalence of typhoid in the larger American cities, including Baltimore; the pestiferous influence of the Anti-Saloon League in promoting prohibition of alcoholic beverages; and all manner of political malfeasance both locally and nationally. But in most of his columns he displays his pungent satirical wit, lampooning poetasters, self-righteous moralists, and political and literary hacks of every description. In several columns Mencken begins outlining his views of the “American language,” the distinctive slang that Americans have adopted as a departure from formal English; Mencken later wrote a landmark treatise on the subject. Throughout these columns, H. L. Mencken displays the perspicacity and penchant for humor and satire that made him the greatest journalist of his day.”

Such is one of the reasons for the Mencken Project.

beauty and, as truth
a projection of feeling
in terms of idea

Part of the Mencken Project.

Adapted from the line:

The only permanent values in the world are truth and beauty, and of these it is probable that truth is lasting only in so far as it is a function and manifestation of beauty—a projection of feeling in terms of idea.

From Damn! A Book of Calumny, XXXVII, On Hearing Mozart, by HL Mencken, 1918

suddenly conscious
power in numbers safely
permit viciousness

Part of the Mencken Project

Taken from the line:

Not because the stoneheads, normally virtuous, are suddenly criminally insane. Nay, but because they are suddenly conscious of the power lying in their numbers—because they suddenly realize that their natural viciousness and insanity may be safely permitted to function.

In other words, the particular swinishness of a crowd is permanently resident in the majority of its members—in all those members, that is, who are naturally ignorant and vicious—perhaps 95 per cent. All studies of mob psychology are defective in that they underestimate this viciousness.

From Damn! A Book of Calumny. XX The Crowd, by HL Mencken, 1918

much thinking marked
by blowsy vacuity
disregard of facts

For the Mencken Project

Adapted from the Minority Report by HL Mencken 1956

The line reads, “… and I sometimes suspect that it may be the main cause of the blowsy vacuity which marks so much of the so-called thinking of mankind. What ails that thinking, two times out of three, is simply its disregard of large categories of essential facts …”

Blowsy?

Having a sloppy or unkempt appearance or aspect.

Vacutiy?

Lack of thought or intelligence; empty-headedness.

Put them together?

An unkempt lack of intelligence or a sloppy empty-headedness.

melodramatic
pursuit of monsters, mostly
imaginary

For the Mencken Project.

Taken from Notes on Democracy, 1927

From the line: The whole history of the country has been a history of melodramatic pursuits of horrendous monsters, most of them imaginary. It was long ago observed that the plain people, under democracy, never vote for anything, but always against something.

colossal display
of such professorial
bombast, flatulence

The Mencken Project

From the American Language, HL Mencken, 1919

Commenting on the “Reorganization of English in Secondary Schools,” compiled by James Fleming Hosic and issued by the National Bureau of Education, “Reorganization of English in Secondary Schools,” compiled by James Fleming Hosic and issued by the National Bureau of Education, Mr. Mencken writes, “The aim of this pamphlet is to rid the teaching of English, including grammar, of its accumulated formalism and ineffectiveness–to make it genuine instruction instead of a pedantic and meaningless routine. And how is this revolutionary aim set forth? By a meticulous and merciless splitting of hairs, a gigantic manufacture of classifications and sub-classifications, a colossal display of professorial bombast and flatulence. “

Rule of by people
has little support in facts
for the theory

For the Mencken Project

Taken from The Minority Report, #343, by HL Mencken, 1956

The line is, “The Theory behind representative government is that superior men – or, at all events, men not inferior to the average in ability and integrity – are chosen to manage the public business, and they carry on this work with reasonable intelligence and honesty. There is little for this theory in the know facts.”

A democracy,
never votes for anything,
but against something.

For the Mencken Project.

From Notes on Democracy, 1927

From the line: The whole history of the country has been a history of melodramatic pursuits of horrendous monsters, most of them imaginary. … It was long ago observed that the plain people, under democracy, never vote for anything, but always against something.

since earliest days,
Republic descended to
tergiversations

From the Mencken Project

I had to come up with the this one only to be able to use the word tergiversations.

The online Merriam-Webster defines it “as evasion of straightforward action or clear-cut statement.”

In French, it might mean, Fait de tergiverser ; attitude d’une personne qui tergiverse.

Which translates, Procrastinating; attitude of a procrastinating person.

Been one all my life but never knew I was tergiversationing.

But I do now!

Seems it has been used twice in American Literature.

This time here by Mr. Menckon.

And another time when George Will … was quoting Mr. Menckon.

The line is, “That the United States, in its foreign relations, has descended to gross deceits and tergiversations since the earliest days of the Republic was long ago pointed out by Lecky; it is regarded universally to-day as a pious fraud.”

From Notes on Democracy, 1927