People Fed On Sugared Praises

The Essence Of Humor Is That It Should Be Unexpected, That It Should Embody An Element Of Surprise, That It Should Startle Us Out Of That Reasonable Gravity Which, After All, Must Be Our Habitual Frame Of Mind.

Now The Pessimist Proper Is The Most Modest Of Men. ... Under No Circumstances Does He Presume To Imagine That He, A Mere Unit Of Pain, Can In Any Degree Change Or Soften The Remorseless Words Of Fate.

There Is No Illusion So Permanent As That Which Enables Us To Look Backward With Complacency; There Is No Mental Process So Deceptive As The Comparing Of Recollections With Realities.

Humor, In One Form Or Another, Is Characteristic Of Every Nation; And Reflecting The Salient Points Of Social And National Life, It Illuminates Those Crowded Corners Which History Leaves Obscure.

It Was Hard To Speed The Male Child Up The Stony Heights Of Erudition, But It Was Harder Still To Check The Female Child At The Crucial Point, And Keep Her Tottering Decorously Behind Her Brother.