Incongruity Is The Mainspring Of Laughter.

Not That I Had Any Special Reason For Hating School. Strange As It May Seem To My Readers, I Was Not Unpopular There. I Was A Modest, Good-humoured Boy. It Is Oxford That Has Made Me Insufferable.

But To Die Of Laughter--this, Too, Seems To Me A Great Euthanasia.

Has The Gift Of Laughter Been Withdrawn From Me? I Protest That I Do Still, At The Age Of Forty-seven, Laugh Often And Loud And Long. But Not, I Believe, So Long And Loud And Often As In My Less Smiling Youth. And I Am Proud, Nowadays, Of Laughing, And Grateful To Any One Who Makes Me Laugh. That Is A Bad Sign. I No Longer Take Laughter As A Matter Of Course.

To Destroy Is Still The Strongest Instinct Of Our Nature.

To Give An Accurate And Exhaustive Account Of That Period Would Need A Far Less Brilliant Pen Than Mine.