"To be an American is, unquestionably, to be the noblest, the grandest, the proudest mammal that ever hoofed the verdure of God's green footstool. Often, in the black abysm of the night, the thought that I am one awakens me with a blast of trumpets, and I am thrown into a cold sweat by contemplation of the fact. I shall cherish it on the scaffold; it will comfort me in hell."
HLM from "The Man Within"
To be happy one must be
a) well fed, unhounded by sordid cares, at ease in Zion,
b) full of a comfortable feeling of superiority to the masses of one's fellow men,
and c) delicately and unceasingly amused according to one's taste.
It is my contention that, if this definition be accepted, there is no country in the world wherein a man constituted as I am -- a man of my peculiar weaknesses, vanities, appetites, and aversions -- can be so happy as he can be in the United States. Going further, I lay down the doctrine that it is a sheer physical impossibility for such a man to live in the United States and not be happy.
That is excellent!