Henry Ward Beecher said: "I do not believe that I have ever met a man on the street that I did not get from him some element for a sermon. In ever see anything in nature which does not work towards that for which I give the strength of my life. The material for my sermons is all the time following me and swarming up around me."
De Maupassant's description of an author should also fit the public-speaker: "His eye is like a suction pump, absorbing everything; like a pickpocket's hand, always at work. Nothing escapes him. He is constantly collecting material, gathering-up glances, gestures, intentions, everything that goes on in his presence--the slightest look, the least act, the merest trifle." De Maupassant was himself a millionth man, a Master.
