H. L. Mencken "Commonwealth of Morons"

 Opinion: The Commonwealth of Morons, H. L. Mencken, "ON BEING AN AMERICAN, Prejudices,3rd series, 1922

"Here, more than anywhere else that I know of or have heard of, the daily panorama of human existence, of private and communal folly - the unending procession of governmental extortions and chicaneries, of commercal brigandages and throat-slittings, of theological buffoonies, of aesthetic ribaldries, of legal swindles and harlotries, of miscellaneous rogueries, villainies, imbecilities, grotesqueries and extravagances - is so inordinately gross and preposterous, so perfectly brought up to the highest conceivable amperage, so steadily enriched with an almost fabulous daring and originality, that only the man who was born with a petrified diaphragm can fail to laugh himself to sleep every night."