Those unable to catalog the past are doomed to repeat it.

It is not always the job of people shouting outside impressive buildings to solve problems. It is often the job of the people inside, who have paper, pens, desks, and an impressive view.

A bolt from the blue.

For obvious reasons, I never told you about my notebook, with a cover as green as mansions long ago, which I use as a commonplace book, a phrase which here means 'place where I have collected passages from some of the most important books I have read.

...there's nothing wrong with occasionally staring out the window and thinking nonsense, as long as the nonsense is yours.

Every problem has a solution. Sometimes it just takes a long time to find the solution - even if it's right in front of your nose.

To stutter through it with you or even stop stuttering and say nothing, was so lucky and soft, better talk than mile-a-minute with anyone. After a few minutes we’d stop rattling, we’d adjust, we’d settle in, and the conversation would speed into the night.