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: | 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). |
| SUBJECTS: | Idealists |