Every man is, in his own person, the whole human race, with not a detail lacking. I am the whole human race without a detail lacking. I have studied the human race with diligence and strong interest all these years in my own person. In myself I find, in big or little proportion, every quality and every defect that is findable in the mass of the race.
I knew I should not find in any philosophy, a single thought which had not passed through my own head, nor a single thought which had not passed through the heads of millions and millions of men before I was born. I knew I should not find a single original thought in any philosophy, and I knew I could not furnish one to the world myself, if I had five centuries to invent it in.
Nietzsche published his book, and was at once pronounced crazy by the world, a world which included tens of thousands of bright, sane men, who believed exactly as Nietzsche believed, but concealed the fact, and scoffed at Nietzsche.
What a coward every man is! And how surely he will find it out, if he will just let other people alone, and sit down and examine himself.
The Human Race is a race of cowards, and I am not only marching in that procession, but carrying a banner.
Henry Louis Mencken
An brutally accurate and specific corollary to Mark Twain's liberating revelation...
When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
