... it occurred to me that never again would he be seven years, one month and six days old, so we had better catch these moments while we can.

That's the trouble with losing your mind; by the time it's gone, it's too late to get it back.

By the time I had finished my coffee and returned to the streets, the rain had temporarily abated, but the streets were full of vast puddles where the drains where unable to cope with the volume of water. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you would think that if one nation ought by now to have mastered the science of drainage, Britain would be it.

It was an especially wonderful time to be a noisy moron.

A significant fraction of thru-hikers reach Katahdin, then turn around and start back to Georgia. They just can't stop walking, which kind of makes you wonder.

There'd never been a more advantageous time to be a criminal in America than during the 13 years of Prohibition. At a stroke, the American government closed down the fifth largest industry in the United States - alcohol production - and just handed it to criminals - a pretty remarkable thing to do.

18th century scientists, the French in particular, seldom did things simply if an absurdly demanding alternative was available.