Environment has its effect on everybody, and for a time it had a numbing effect on him, preventing him from thinking clearly. - Nevil Shute

She recognised in Mr Honey a man of moods, capable of deep depression; all geniuses, she had read, were men like that.

He was one of that great class of Englishmen who love their wives and trust them unquestioningly with their money and their honour, but are apt to hedge a little over their motor-cars.

Personal unpleasantness always upset his work; he could not think clearly if his mind was full of hard things that had been said about him, and he liked thinking clearly. Rows frightened him; he would go to considerable lengths to avoid them.