“The past is set down in a thousand thousand indelible scrolls. But the future is a blank parchment forever in wait of a present.”

“The future is a hundred thousand threads, but the past is a fabric that can never be rewoven.”

“There are thousands of years in the past, and there is an unknown amount of time in the future. There are all kinds of opportunities, and there are all kinds of dangers.”

“Because what's the use of learning that I am one of a long row only - finding out that there is set down in some old book somebody just like me, and to know that I shall only act her part; making me sad, that's all. The best is not to remember your nature and your past doings have been just like thousands' and thousands', and that your coming life and doings'll be like thousands' and thousands'.”

“London has the trick of making its past, its long indelible past, always a part of its present. And for that reason it will always have meaning for the future, because of all it can teach about disaster, survival, and redemption. It is all there in the streets. It is all there in the books.”

“The images of his infinite pasts and infinite futures washed over him as he waited, paralyzed, in the present.”