"I have simply gotten old, perhaps without ever being young."
"One doesn't engage in physical assertion with an employer."
"I can't even say I made my own mistakes, really."
"The job I perform day in, day out is not to offer my own opinions."
"She has gone. There is no purpose in thinking of her further."
"The evening light... it is so easy to miss such things."
"One's entire life could be said to be 'moments like this'."
"A butler's duty is not to surrender his professional authority."
"I have come to realize that the very things I have long cultivated have been to the detriment of myself."
"One must be prepared to challenge the prevailing mood of one's times."
"A man of great capability must not allow sentiment to diminish his performance."
"The banality of evil is, after all, not without its philosophical merit."
"I can't even say I made my own mistakes."
"One must not allow the heart to rule the head in matters of professional conduct."
"The future, after all, does not yet exist."
"To question one's own decision-making is to question one's very identity."
"A butler's task is to serve, not to judge."
"I have been ordered about too long to question now."
"One cannot undo the past, however much one might wish to."
"The moment when I might have achieved something different has long passed."
"Professional integrity demands one does not permit one's personal feelings to interfere."
"A butler is expected to maintain the highest standards of conduct."
"One attempts to be a good butler, but perhaps that is all one can do."
"The dignity of the profession has been my life's pursuit."
"One looks at the world and wonders what one has accomplished."
"A professional must not waver in conviction, however difficult the circumstances."
"The choice was never mine to make, perhaps, but the consequences are."
"One must go on as best one can with what one has done."
"The world is a complicated place, and we are its servants."
"One's duty is not to question, but to perform one's function."