Metaphysics is almost always an attempt to prove the incredible by an appeal to the unintelligible.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that metaphysical arguments often rely on abstract concepts that are difficult to understand.
H. L. Mencken highlights the idea that metaphysics frequently seeks to validate extraordinary claims through reasoning that is not easily comprehensible. This can imply that such arguments may lack solid grounding and can lead to skepticism about their validity, as they depend heavily on concepts that seem beyond human understanding.
In practice
In a discussion on the nature of reality, you might use this quote to emphasize the challenges of metaphysical arguments.
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.
By deafening ourselves to the emotional consequences of violence we have become confused by its relationship to sex. We have come to believe that violence equals aggression, and we have come to base our model of sexuality on our model of violence... converting an act of aggression into an act of consensual sexuality.
i am perfect because i am inseparable from the infinite, the force of life that creates the stars and the entire universe of light. i am God's creation. i don't need to be what i am not.
We have so far to go to realize our human potential for compassion, altruism, and love.
The price of our vitality is the sum of all our fears
Every time I look in the mirror, I see that kid from Louisville, Kentucky, staring back at me. His name was Cassius Clay.
With Christ, it is not how much we give, but what we do not give that is the real test.
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