Every one should keep a mental waste-paper basket and the older he grows the more things he will consign to it—torn up to irrecoverable tatters.
Flies in the Milk-Jug
Saving scraps is like picking flies out of the milk-jug. We do not mind doing this, I suppose, because we feel sure the flies will never want to borrow money off us. We do not feel so sure about anything much bigger than a fly. If it were a mouse that had got into the milk-jug, we should call the cat at once.
My Thoughts
They are like persons met upon a journey; I think them very agreeable at first but soon find, as a rule, that I am tired of them.
Our Ideas
They are for the most part like bad sixpences and we spend our lives in trying to pass them on one another.
Cat-Ideas and Mouse-Ideas
We can never get rid of mouse-ideas completely, they keep turning up again and again, and nibble, nibble—no matter how often we drive them off. The best way to keep them down is to have a few good strong cat-ideas which will embrace them and ensure their not reappearing till they do so in another shape.