There ought to be a room in every house to swear in. It's dangerous to have to repress an emotion like that.
Mark TwainAs soon as a man recognizes that he has drifted into age, he gets reminiscent. He wants to talk and talk; and not about the present or the future, but about his old times. For there is where the pathos of his life lies - and the charm of it. The pathos of it is there because it was opulent with treasures that are gone, and the charm of it is in casting them up from the musty ledgers and remembering how rich and gracious they were.
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