Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER:
870
AUTHOR:
Henry Louis Mencken (1880–1956)
QUOTATION:
An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it is also more nourishing.
ATTRIBUTION:
H. L. MENCKEN, A Little Book in C Major, p. 19 (1916).
He later altered this to read “…concludes that it will also make better soup.”—A Book of Burlesques, p. 205 (1924) and A Mencken Chrestomathy, p. 617 (1949).
