H. L. Mencken Religion Quotations

Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.

Communism, like any other revealed religion, is largely made up of prophecies.

The chief contribution of Protestantism to human thought is its massive proof that God is a bore.

There is a saying in Baltimore that crabs may be prepared in fifty ways and that all of them are good.

Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses.

The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.

Morality is the theory that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that 99 % of them are wrong.

The essence of science is that it is always willing to abandon a given idea for a better one; the essence of theology is that it holds its truths to be eternal and immutable.

Morality is doing what is right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right.

Evangelical Christianity, as everyone knows, is founded upon hate, as the Christianity of Christ was founded upon love.

The worshiper is the father of the gods.

The objection to Puritans is not that they try to make us think as they do, but that they try to make us do as they think.

There is only one justification for having sinned, and that is to be glad of it.

A Puritan is someone who is desperately afraid that, somewhere, someone might be having a good time.

All great religions, in order to escape absurdity, have to admit a dilution of agnosticism. It is only the savage, whether of the African bush or the American gospel tent, who pretends to know the will and intent of God exactly and completely.

Christian--One who is willing to serve three Gods, but draws the line at one wife.

Religion is "so absurd that it comes close to imbecility."

There is something even more valuable to civilization than wisdom, and that is character.

I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind.