Talking Rings: My name is of no consequence. The important thing you should know, is that I am the last who remembers how each of us, man and woman made his own decision. Some chose to take refuge in the great caverns, and find a new way of life far below the earth's surface. The rest of us decided to take our chances in the sunlight. Small as those chances might be.
George: David, I've got to tell it now. While I still remember it.
Filby: Relax, try to relax. You've all the time in the world.
George: You're right David, that's exactly what I have. All the time in the world.
George: When I speak of time, I'm speaking of the fourth dimension.
Filby: Take your journey on your contraption. What would you become? A Greek, a Roman, one of the pharaohs?
Filby: Which three books would you have taken?
George: What have you done? Thousands of years of building and rebuilding, creating and recreating so you can let it crumble to dust. A million years of sensitive men dying for their dreams... FOR what? So you can swim and dance and play.
Answer: Earlier in the movie, Mrs. Watchit hands an envelope to Philby with a note inside to inform everyone that if George doesn't show up at 8:00, then they can start dinner without him. This is what he most likely left on the mantle before he started his journey through time.