It has been reported that I was seriously ill--it was another man; dying--it was another man; dead--the other man again...As far as I can see, nothing remains to be reported, except that I have become a foreigner. When you hear it, don't you believe it. And don't take the trouble to deny it. Merely just raise the American flag on our house in Hartford and let it talk.
Mark TwainWill a day come when the race will detect the funniness of these juvenilities and laugh at themโand by laughing at them destroy them? For your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weaponโlaughter. Power, Money, Persuasion, Supplication, Persecution--these can lift at a colossal humbug,โpush it a littleโ crowd it a littleโweaken it a little, century by century: but only Laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of Laughter nothing can stand. - "The Chronicle of Young Satan," Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts
Mark Twain