You may have noticed that the less I know about a subject the more confidence I have, and the more new light I throw on it.

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.

A powerful agent is the right word: it lights the reader's way and makes it plain.

December is the toughest month of the year. Others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, October, August, and February.

The spirit of wrath - not the words - is the sin; and the spirit of wrath is cursing. We begin to swear before we can talk.

Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak.

I don't believe any of you have ever read Paradise Lost, and you don't want to. That's something that you just want to take on trust. It's a classic ... something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.