My mind....

Sherlock once described his brain as an attic, where he stored pieces of information until he needed them, though he limited what he placed in there. I must store a far more diverse and sizable collection of information than he, so I would use another analogy. My mind is rather like . . . a food pantry in a fine Italian restaurant. . . . I have in my mind stored many thousands of varieties of food and fine vintages to consume. When I find those I desire, I pluck them off the shelf and set them upon the kitchen table to make use of and digest. When I am finished, I reseal the remainder in their parcels and return them to their proper places or toss them away if they are useless. The pantry is neatly organized, labelled. I know where everything is, and I am constantly updating and refilling it.
--Mr. Mycroft Holmes, from The Watson Chronicles, "The St. James Park Mystery"

On the Occasion of My Marriage

Sherlock Holmes once labelled Irene Norton nèe Adler “the woman” because she’d bested him on a case. For this, he said, she eclipsed the whole of her sex. I, however, give another woman this title: my lovely wife Lucy, who does not eclipse all women, but like sunlight on a brilliant jewel, illuminates and reveals the many glorious facets of female character to all those who come to know her.
—written on the endpapers of Watson family Bible, dated December 27, 1902.