Anything seems commonplace, once explained.
You have been in Afghanistan I perceive.
You know my methods. Apply them.
The unexpected has happened so continually in my life that it has ceased to deserve the name.
It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but that you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.
I am engaged in answering that Italian buffoon, Mazotti, whose views upon the larval development of the tropical termites have excited my derision and contempt . . .