Platitudes and H.L. Mencken

"Platitudes are the Sundays of stupidity"

The above quote is attributed to H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) who was a journalist, satirist, social critic and free thinker. I don't pretend to know what all that means. 

I found it to be a very interesting statement and I wanted to find out what he meant by it. 

He is also known as the "American Nietzsche" and in order to fully understand this remark, I had to look up some definitions. The first was "who is H.L. Menken". I just answered that. 

The next thing I wanted to answer was the definition of "platitude". Webster defines it as 

"the quality or state of being dull or insipid; a banal, trite or stale remark."

Next, what has Sunday to do with it? Sunday is a day of rest. A holy day, a sabbath. A day off. In the case of the quote it might be more related to the adjective used to describe someone putting on their best behavior or appearance; an amateur as in the phrase 

"put on your Sunday best".

"Stupid"? It means slow of mind, unintelligent, brutish or senseless. 

So if I put it all down another way, the quote may go something like  this: 

"dull, uninteresting and trite remarks, are showy things senseless people say". 

Could it be said another way? 

"Things are said in trite ways to satisfy unintelligent people".

It might also mean 

"the dim-witted things people think or say are generally acceptable when wrapped nicely in an insipid quote".

To me it is like a politician, when trying to win the votes of the masses, dances around the substantive issues by giving a wordy speech bedraggled with nice, banal words and phrases, but short on specifics.

I think of this quote when I hear an oft repeated phrase; a platitude. Things like  

• "Reach across the aisle"
• "The time is now"
• "There's only one race, the human race"
• "There's still work to be done"
• "Glass Ceiling"