H. L. Mencken

“ Out of his confidence come the innumberable saws, axioms and geflügelte Wrote in the national arsenal, ranging from the “It won’t hurt none to try” of the great masses of the plain people to such exhilarating confections of the wall-card virtuosi as “The elevator to success is not running; take the stairs.” Naturally enough, a grotesque humor plays about this literature of hope; the folk, though it moves them, prefer it with a dash of salt. “Smile, damn you, smile!” is a typical specimen of this seasoned optimism. ”

“ They “inspire” by voicing and revoicing the New Thought doctrine that all things are possible to the man who thinks the right sort of thoughts—in the national phrase, to the right-thinker. This right-thinker is indistinguishable from the forward-looker, whose belief in the continuity and benignity of the evolutionary process takes on the virulence of a religious faith. ”

“ No people, save perhaps the Spaniards, have a richer store of proverbial wisdom than the Americans, and surely none other makes more diligent and deliberate efforts to augment its riches. The American literature of “inspirational” platitude is enormous and almost unique. ”

“ The war, as we have seen in the chapter on Slang, produced very little new slang, but the doughboys showed all the national talent for manufacturing proverbs and proverbial expressions, chiefly derisive. “Our American visitors,” said an English writer at the end of the war, “are startling London with vivid phrases. Some of them are well known by now. ‘Hurry up and get born’ is one of them. Others are coming on, such as ‘Put crape on your nose ”