Truth would quickly cease to be stranger than fiction, once we got as used to it.
Interpretation
Truth can be as surprising as fiction when we become accustomed to it.
H. L. Mencken's quote suggests that what we often consider as truth can become as surprising or implausible as fiction, depending on our understanding and acceptance of reality. It invites reflection on how we perceive truth and the narratives we create around it, emphasizing that our familiarity can sometimes dull our sense of wonder towards the genuine complexities of life.
In practice
In a discussion about the nature of reality and fiction, this quote can be invoked to illustrate how strange truths can appear.
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.
From joy people are born; for joy they live; in joy they melt at death. Death is an ecstasy, for it removes the burden of the body and frees the soul of all pain springing from body identification. It is the cessation of pain and sorrow.
For, in truth, there is no sure way of holding other than by destroying
My hope is to gain a fresh hearing for Jesus, especially among those who believe they already understand him. In his case, quite frankly, presumed familiarity has led to unfamiliarity, unfamiliarity has led to contempt, and contempt has led to profound ignorance.
It is far more comforting to think God listened and said no, than to think that nobodyβs out there.
War is the continuation of politics by other means.
This is true liberty, when free-born men, having to advise the public, may speak free.
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