The formula of the argument is simple and familiar: to dispose of a problem all that is necessary is to deny that it exists.
Interpretation
Avoiding a problem by ignoring its existence does not solve it.
H. L. Mencken highlights a common human tendency to deny problems rather than confront them head-on. This quote serves as a reminder that simply ignoring an issue does not make it disappear; rather, it often exacerbates the situation and leads to more significant consequences.
In practice
In a discussion about mental health, this quote can emphasize the importance of acknowledging issues rather than ignoring them.
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.
A man's shortcomings are taken from his epoch; his virtues and greatness belong to himself.
Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark; For though from out our bourne of Time and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar.
There is reason to suspect, that the distinctions of mankind have more show than value, when it is found that all agree to be weary alike of pleasures and of cares; that the powerful and the weak, the celebrated and obscure, join in one common wish, and implore from nature's hand the nectar of oblivion.
For before this I was born once a boy, and a maiden, and a plant, and a bird, and a darting fish in the sea.
Doth the Reality of sensible things consist in being perceived? or, is it something distinct from their being perceived, and that bears no relation to the mind?
King of the animals β as thou hast described him β I should rather say king of the beasts, thou being the greatest β because thou hast spared slaying them, in order that they may give thee their children for the benefit of the gullet, of which thou hast attempted to make a sepulchre for all animals; and I would say still more, if it were allowed me to speak the entire truth.
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