Legend: A lie that has attained the dignity of age.
Interpretation
A long-held falsehood can often be accepted as truth through repetition over time.
This quote by H. L. Mencken reflects on how lies can become entrenched in society, gaining acceptance as they are repeated over the years. It serves as a reminder to critically evaluate information and to recognize that something's longevity does not guarantee its truthfulness.
In practice
This quote could be used in a debate about historical narratives and how they shape our understanding of the past.
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.
Every man must have the right fearlessly to think independently and express his opinion about what he knows, what he has personally thought about and experienced, and not merely to express with slightly different variations the opinion which has been inculcated in him.
If you can be kind and considerate for one day, then you can be for another. It won't cost you a penny in the world. Begin today.
The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.
Sometimes if you jump into something too quickly, you can screw up something that might have been good two years down the road.
He who acknowledges a kindness has it still, and he who has a grateful sense of it has requited it.
Some people spend the day in complaining of a headache, and the night in drinking the wine that gives it.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.