human progress - quotes

H(enry) L(ouis) Mencken, 1880-1956

was an American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of American life and culture

Man is never honestly the fatalist, nor even the stoic. He fights his fate, often desperately. He is forever entering bold exceptions to the rulings of the bench of gods. This fighting, no doubt, makes for human progress, for it favors the strong and the brave. It also makes for beauty, for lesser men try to escape from a hopeless and intolerable world by creating a more lovely one of their own.