The honorary degree is a way of honoring a pompous ass. No honest person would accept a degree he hadn’t worked for. Honorary degrees are suitable only for realtors, chiropractors and presidents of the United States.
H.L. Mencken, as quoted by Alistair Cooke in a speech before the National Press Club, October 8, 1986.
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H.L. Mencken
One reply on “H.L. Mencken”
I’ve seen more than one version of this quote by way of Cooke, but it doesn’t show-up in Mencken’s published works nor in biographies of Mencken.
Originally, the idea of what we now call “graduate” degrees was that they honored contributions to the body of a discipline. Thus, for example, any doctoral degree honored particularly special contribution to that body. But, over time, the process of ostensible achievement has been in a sense automated, so that normally one takes additional courses, passes additional examinations, produces a collection of three papers (at least one of which is deemed worthy of publication) jointly called a dissertation, and then defends this collection before a group of certified scientists or scholars. Much of the honor has been leeched away, though the rare dissertation here-or-there truly is an outstanding accomplishment.