Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that what is considered immoral is often defined by those who are not enjoying life to the fullest.
H. L. Mencken's quote explores the idea that societal norms of morality are often dictated by those who are less adventurous or less willing to embrace life's pleasures. It implies that those who are having a better time may participate in actions deemed immoral simply because they seek enjoyment and fulfillment outside of conventional boundaries. This positions the concept of morality as subjective and influenced by individual experiences and happiness.
In practice
A discussion on ethical dilemmas in a philosophical lecture.
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.
The man of character, sensitive to the meaning of what he is doing, will know how to discover the ethical paths in the maze of possible behavior.
Men walk almost always in the paths trodden by others, proceeding in their actions by imitation.
I believe that the time given to refutation in philosophy is usually time lost. Of the many attacks directed by many thinkers against each other, what now remains? Nothing, or assuredly very little. That which counts and endures is the modicum of positive truth which each contributes. The true statement is, of itself, able to displace the erroneous idea, and becomes, without our having taken the trouble of refuting anyone, the best of refutations.
Laughter does not deny pain. Laughter - like a wail - acknowledges and replies to pain.
The misuse of language induces evil in the soul.
The notion of humans as inherently rational beings has been not only trashed in economics, but trashed in all the best research on moral decision-making.
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