Bridges would not be safer if only people who knew the proper definition of a real number were allowed to design them.
Interpretation
Expertise in one area does not guarantee safety or success in another.
H. L. Mencken's quote suggests that having specialized knowledge, such as understanding mathematical concepts, does not necessarily qualify someone to address practical and safety concerns in unrelated fields, like bridge design. It emphasizes the importance of diverse skills and practical experience over theoretical knowledge alone.
In practice
In a discussion about the importance of practical experience in engineering, this quote can highlight the limitations of theoretical knowledge.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
We will neglect our cities to our peril, for in neglecting them we neglect the nation.
A traveller must have the back of an ass to bear all, a tongue like the tail of a dog to flatter all, the mouth of a hog to eat what is set before him, the ear of a merchant to hear all and say nothing.
We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.
To people like me, educated in post-war Britain, free speech has been a firm premise of the British way of life.
You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style.
People were excited by violence. What, after all, was the sexual act but a voluntarily endured assault, a momentary death?
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