Thomas Wentworth Higginson, The new world and the new book

[129] if we have such a thing among us, although it may cling to our garments, we are habitually as unconscious of it as are smokers of the perfume of their favorite weed. When attention is once called to it, however, we are compelled to perceive it, and may then look at it both from the desirable and undesirable sides, since both of these sides it has.

There is certainly no defence or water-proof garment against adverse fortune which is, on the whole, so effectual as an habitual sense of humor. The man who has it can rarely be cast down for a great while by external events; and it is much the same with a nation. For some reason or other, in the transplantation to this continent, certain traits were heightened and certain other qualities were diminished among the English-speaking race. Thus much may be safely assumed. Among the heightened attributes was the sense of humor; and to this, no doubt, some of our seeming virtues may be attributed.

The good-nature of an American crowd, the long-suffering of American travellers under detention or even fraud, the recoil of cheerfulness