Germany, the diseased world's bathhouse.

I find no change of consequence in grown people, I do not miss the dead. It does not surprise me to hear that this friend or that friend died at such and such a time, because I fully expected that sort of news. But somehow I had made no calculation on the infants. It never occurred to me that infants grow up...These unexpected changes, from infancy to youth, and from youth to maturity, are by far the most startling things I meet with.

A round man cannot be expected to fit in a square hole right away. He must have time to modify his shape.

He had the calm confidence of a Christian with four aces.

Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough.

I haven't a particle of confidence in a man who has no redeeming petty vices whatsoever.

My brother had just been appointed Secretary of Nevada Territory--an office of such majesty that it concentrated in itself the duties and dignities of Treasurer, Comptroller, Secretary of State, and Acting Governor in the Governor's absence. A salary of eighteen hundred dollars a year and the title of "Mr. Secretary," gave to the great position an air of wild and imposing grandeur. I was young and ignorant, and I envied my brother.