I detest converts almost as much as I do missionaries.
Interpretation
The quote expresses disdain for those who aggressively promote beliefs or persuade others to convert to their perspective.
H. L. Mencken highlights a critical view of both converts and missionaries, suggesting that he finds both groups tedious and overly zealous in their efforts to spread their beliefs. This reflects a broader skepticism about the authenticity of converted beliefs and the motives of those who seek to influence others to adopt their views.
In practice
During a debate on religious conversion, this quote could serve as a strong opener to express skepticism.
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.
Even if one is neither vain nor self-obsessed, it is so extraordinary to be oneself - exactly oneself and no one else - and so unique, that it seems natural that one should also be unique for someone else.
Perspective [is] a luxury when your head [is] constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons.
We shouldn't live as if [other worlds] mattered more than this life in this world, because where we are is always the most important place.
Nakedness has no color: this can come as news only to those who have never covered, or been covered by, another naked human being.
God hath work to do in this world; and to desert it because of its difficulties and entanglements, is to cast off His authority. It is not enough that we be just, that we be righteous, and walk with God in holiness; but we must also serve our generation, as David did before he fell asleep. God hath a work to do; and not to help Him is to oppose Him.
The time has come for people of reason to say: Enough is Enough! Religious faith discourages independent thought, it's divisive and it's dangerous.
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