A masterpiece’s survival can depend on an uncelebrated person deciding not to throw it away.

Survival of anything old usually depended on an unnamed person choosing not to discard it. Not a curator or a patron, but someone clearing a house, sorting an attic, deciding a box was worth keeping. The masterpiece exists partly because of a small unrecorded act of ordinary care.

This is a reason to be careful with what passes through your hands. Letters, recordings, drawings by children, the things whose value is not yet obvious. You do not have to be sentimental about everything, but a slower default when throwing away costs little. And it is worth remembering that most preservation is done by people nobody thanks.