George A. Smith

“ Railroad collisions, steamboat accidents, fires, and freezing to death are just as common as before, and a little more so. And another thing I suppose you will be glad to learn—the devil is not dead. [Brigham Young: I feel thankful for that.]
A great portion of the people have come to the conclusion, after having been a great many years considering the subject over, that we are a very desperate set of fellows out here. Politicians are a little vexed, for they do not know what to do with us. ”

“ The traders on the road say that mules are nowhere by the side of them. I never saw such a pretty sight in my life. We had a meeting with them on Horseshoe Creek, and a better set of men I never saw, and men that were old when I was a boy were as active as boys, rolling on with their handcarts, singing and rejoicing. ”

“ Things have changed a little now-a-days, but it is an age of improvement. If a man tells the truth, he stands no earthly chance whatever; he has got to lie and mix so much lie with the truth that it will hide it almost entirely, or he cannot receive any credit whatever. So it is to a great extent, and instead of truth governing the world at the present time, lies and falsehood govern it, as far as I have observed.
It will be recollected, when I left the Valley, there was a great scarcity of provisions ”