Human life is basically a comedy. Even its tragedies often seem comic to the spectator, and not infrequently they actually have comic touches to the victim. Happiness probably consists largely in the capacity to detect and relish them. A man who can laugh, if only at himself, is never really miserable.
Interpretation
Life is often humorous, even amid tragedy, and true happiness involves recognizing and appreciating this humor.
H. L. Mencken's quote suggests that human life can be seen as a comedy, with its tragedies often possessing humorous elements that can be appreciated by both onlookers and those directly affected. Happiness, according to Mencken, arises from the ability to recognize and enjoy these moments of humor, and a person who is capable of laughing at themselves retains a sense of joy, which prevents true misery.
In practice
In a motivational speech about resilience, one might quote Mencken to illustrate the importance of maintaining a sense of humor through hardships.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
Why do I live in the desert? Because the desert is the *locus Dei*.
I am aware that no man is a villain in his own eyes.
Do not treat others as you yourself would not be treated.
'Zone One' has one kind of an apocalypse, and 'The Underground Railroad' another. In both cases, the narrators are animated by a hope in a better place of refuge - in the last surviving human outpost, Up North. Does it exist? They can only believe.
No man has a right in America to treat any other man "tolerantly" for tolerance is the assumption of superiority. Our liberties are equal rights of every citizen.
One who has never known the turbulence of life, in whom the petals of the mysterious flower within have never opened; such a one may seem happy, may seem a saint, his single track mind may impress the multitude with its power - but he is ill equipped for life's true adventure into the infinite.
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