The Cedar Walk has been planned and planted by someone was never going to see it

The Cedar Walk has been planned and planted by someone was never going to see it - not him, nor his children, not even his children's children, though they would have had a clearer view of what it was going to be. What amazingly generous confidence in the future those eighteenth-century landscape designers had!

D. Athill, Alive, alive oh! (2015), 23-4

The very fact that we made files labeled “Planning” suggests how little of it we did

When I was clearing out a file drawer recently I came across a thick file labeled “Planning.” The very fact that we made files labeled “Planning” suggests how little of it we did. We also had “planning meetings,” which consisted of sitting down with legal pads, stating the day’s problem out loud, and then, with no further attempt to solve it, going out to lunch. Such lunches were festive, as if to celebrate a job well done.

J. Didion, The year of magical thinking (2005), 209