“It was useless arguing with people like her. They had stereotyped minds that ran along grooves of stock response and the commonplace.”

“The mind tends to run along the groove of one's intention and overlook the actual expression.”

“If she ran, at least her body still had motion, even if her brain was mired under responsibility.”

“Mrs General had no opinions. Her way of forming a mind was to prevent it from forming opinions. She had a little circular set of mental grooves or rails on which she started little trains of other people's opinions, which never overtook one another, and never got anywhere.”

“It was useless to argue, she thought, and to wonder about people who would neither refute an argument nor accept it.”

“Your thoughts construct patterns like scaffolding in your mind. You are really etching chemical patterns. In most cases, people get stuck in those patterns, just like grooves in a record, and they never get out of them.”