"What irritates the normal or rational American is not that he would think Americans blamable, but that he should think himself blameless."

For instance, an Englishman, as a European, has a right to complain of the bumptious and purse-proud swagger of some Yankee globe-trotters in Europe. Only he ought to preface his protest by admitting that the same sort of complaint was made about Englishmen in Europe in the days when England had the same mercantile supremacy and the same materialistic mood. After he has said that, he can say anything; he can pursue the vulgar and offensive American with fire and sword of satire and derision and denunciation, and probably find most sensible and responsible Americans agreeing with him. What irritates the normal or rational American is not that he would think Americans blamable, but that he should think himself blameless. I believe this to be a very vital principle of the peace and friendship of nations.

-Sidelights (1932)