A remembered phrase can keep somebody’s way of seeing available.

Somebody’s way of looking at things can outlast them in a single sentence. A phrase your grandfather used about weather, or a teacher’s habit of asking one particular question, keeps working long after the person has gone, because it arrives at the moment it applies and does the same job it always did. What is inherited is not the words but the angle they carry.

If someone taught you a way of seeing, use the phrase out loud rather than keeping it private. Say who it came from. Passing it on is the only maintenance it needs, and it costs a sentence.