I had a sort of vague desire to examine his hands and see if they were of flesh and blood, like other men's.

Here was a man who could do this wonderful thing, and yet if I chose I could knock him down.

The case was plain, but it seemed preposterous, nevertheless--as preposterous as trying to knock down a mountain or wipe out a continent.

If this man sprained his ankle, a million miles of telegraph would carry the news over mountains -- valleys--uninhabited deserts--under the trackless sea--and ten thousand newspapers would prate of it; if he were grievously ill, all the nations would know it before the sun rose again; if he dropped lifeless where he stood, his fall might shake the thrones of half a world! If I could have stolen his coat, I would have done it.

When I meet a man like that, I want something to remember him by.
As a general thing, we have been shown through palaces by some plush-legged filagreed flunkey or other, who charged a franc for it; but after talking with the company half an hour, the Emperor of Russia and his family conducted us all through their mansion themselves.