best quotations about
Memory |
and Reminiscence
| 73 quotes | Visits: 15,827 |
Quotations
 | If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything. — Mark Twain, 1835-1910, American writer 38 likes |
 | In the afterlife, we’ll sit around talking about the good old days, when we wished that we were dead. — Samuel Beckett, 1906-1989, Irish writer, Nobel 1969 28 likes |
 | Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were. — Marcel Proust, 1871-1922, French writer 22 likes |
 | A liar should have a good memory. — Quintilian, 35-96 AD, Roman rhetorician 17 likes |
 | If you want to keep your memories, you first have to live them. — Bob Dylan, 1941-, American singer [Nobel 2016] 9 likes |
| When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not. — Mark Twain, 1835-1910, American writer 9 likes |
 | Since the only things we remember are humiliations and defeats, what is the use of all the rest? — Emile M. Cioran, 1911-1995, French-Romanian philosopher 6 likes |
 | Nothing prints more lively in our minds than something we wish to forget. — Michel de Montaigne, 1533-1592, French thinker 6 likes |
 | Remembering is only a new form of suffering. — Charles Baudelaire, 1821-1867, French poet 6 likes |
 | Memory... is an internal rumor. — George Santayana, 1863-1952, Spanish-American philosopher 6 likes |
 | And then will come the day when the last person who remembers me will die. — Vladimir Nabokov, 1899-1977, Russian-American writer 6 likes |
 | What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1927-2014, Colombian writer 6 likes |
 | One lives in the hope of becoming a memory. — Antonio Porchia, 1885-1968, Italian-Argentinian poet 5 likes |
 | It’s like déjà vu all over again. — Yogi Berra, 1925-2015, American baseball player & humorist 5 likes |
 | To be able to look back upon one’s life in satisfaction, is to live twice. — Khalil Gibran, 1883-1931, Lebanese-American poet & philosopher 5 likes |
 | Nothing awakens a reminiscence like an odor. — Victor Hugo, 1802-1885, French writer 5 likes |
 | Memory believes before knowing remembers. — William Faulkner, 1897-1962, American writer, Nobel 1949 5 likes |
 | The true art of memory is the art of attention. — Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784, English writer 5 likes |
 | A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience. — Doug Larson, 1926-2017, American columnist 5 likes |
 | Many a man fails to become a thinker only because his memory is too good. — Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900, German philosopher 4 likes |
 | Like all great travelers I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen. — Benjamin Disraeli, 1804-1881, British Prime Minister 4 likes |
 | The best memories are those which we have forgotten. — Alfred Capus, 1858-1922, French writer 4 likes |
 | That which was bitter to endure may be sweet to remember. — Dr. Thomas Fuller, 1654-1734, English physician and adage collector 4 likes |
 | Perhaps creating something is nothing but an act of profound remembrance. — Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875-1926, Czech-German poet 4 likes |
 | Memories of the past are not memories of facts but memories of your imaginings of the facts. — Philip Roth, 1933-2018, American writer 4 likes |
 | The first recipe for happiness is: avoid too lengthy meditation on the past. — André Maurois, 1885-1967, French writer 4 likes |
 | When our memories outweigh our dreams, it is then that we become old. — Bill Clinton, 1946-, American President [1992-2000] 4 likes |
| The good reader is one who has imagination, memory, a dictionary, and some artistic sense. — Vladimir Nabokov, 1899-1977, Russian-American writer 4 likes |
 | Memory works like the collection glass in the Camera obscura: it gathers everything together and therewith produces a far more beautiful picture than was present originally. — Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860, German philosopher 3 likes |
 | Neurotics expect you to remember all the things that they tell you, and many that they don't. — Mignon McLaughlin, 1913-1983, American magazine editor 3 likes |
 | Men live by forgetting and woman live on memories. — T. S. Eliot, 1888-1965, British poet, Nobel 1948 3 likes |
 | Attention is the chisel of memory. — Duc de Levis, 1764-1830, French politician & author of maxims 3 likes |
 | Memory does not make films, it makes photographs. — Milan Kundera, 1929-2023, Czech writer 3 likes |
 | When we are alone for too long, we fill the empty space with ghosts. — Guy de Maupassant, 1850-1893, French writer 3 likes |
| I think it is all a matter of love; the more you love a memory the stronger and stranger it becomes. — Vladimir Nabokov, 1899-1977, Russian-American writer 3 likes |
 | One of the saddest things in life, is the things one remembers. — Agatha Christie, 1890-1976, British writer 2 likes |
 | Memory is a poet, not a historian. — Paul Lefevre Geraldy, 1885-1983, French writer 2 likes |
 | We never remember days, only moments. — Cesare Pavese, 1908-1950, Italian writer 1 likes |
 | No one ever forgets where he buried the hatchet. — Kin Hubbard, 1868-1930, American cartoonist 1 likes |
 | It is only up to the head to think, but the whole body has memory. — Joseph Joubert, 1754-1824, French author of maxims 1 likes |
 | The things we remember best are those better forgotten. — Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658, Spanish writer 1 likes |
 | A smile happens in a flash, but its memory can last a lifetime. — Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970, British philosopher 1 likes |
 | The memory hurts wherever you touch it. — Giorgos Seferis, 1900-1971, Greek poet, Nobel 1963 1 likes |
 | We spend half our life remembering without understanding, and the other half understanding without remembering. — Antoine Rivarol, 1753-1801, French author of maxims 1 likes |
 | The human race tends to remember the abuses to which it has been subjected rather than the endearments. What's left of kisses? Wounds, however, leave scars. — Bertolt Brecht, 1898-1956, German writer 1 likes |
 | Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman. — Coco Chanel, 1883-1971, French fashion designer 1 likes |
 | A little remembering is all right, but too much is a disease I am terribly prone to. — William Maxwell, 1908-2000, American writer 1 likes |
 | All that is worth remembering in life, is the poetry of it. — William Hazlitt , 1778-1830, English essayist & critic 1 likes |
 | People forget facts, but they remember stories. — Joseph Campbell, 1904-1987, American academic 1 likes |
 | We give each other memories when we leave each other. — Marcel Achard, 1899-1974, French playwright 1 likes |
 | Like a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memories survive in time of sorrow. — Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850-1894, Scottish writer 1 likes |
 | Memory is the intelligence of fools. — Henry de Montherlant, 1895-1972, French writer 1 likes |
 | An autobiography usually reveals nothing bad about its writer except his memory. — Franklin P. Jones, 1908-1980, American columnist 1 likes |
 | Each participation is the birth of a memory. — Salvador Dali, 1904-1989, Spanish painter 1 likes |
 | You are young, and your bitter recollections have time to change themselves into sweet remembrances. — Alexandre Dumas, 1802-1870, French writer 1 likes |
| Many years later, in front of the firing squad, colonel Aureliano Buendía would remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1927-2014, Colombian writer (first phrase of “One Hundred Years of Solitude”) 1 likes |
 | God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December. — James Barrie, 1860-1937, English writer 1 likes |
 | I am eternally faithful to the memories; I will never be to men. — Lou Andreas-Salomé, 1861-1937, Russian-German writer & psychoanalyst 1 likes |
 | Everybody needs his memories. They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door. — Saul Bellow, 1914-2005, Canadian-American writer, Nobel 1976 1 likes |
 | To observe attentively is to remember distinctly. — Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849, American writer 1 likes |
 | We all have our time machines. Those that take us back are memories. And those that carry us forward, are dreams. — H.G. Wells, 1866-1946, British writer 1 likes |
 | We write to taste life twice, in the moment, and in retrospection. — Anais Nin, 1903-1977, French writer 1 likes |
 | Memory is a net: one finds it full of fish when he takes it from the brook, but a dozen miles of water have run through it without sticking. — Oliver W. Holmes Sr., 1809-1894, American writer 1 likes |
 | Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory. — Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519, Italian polymath & painter 1 likes |
Quotes in Verse
 | We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory. — Louise Glück, 1943-2023, American poet, Nobel 2020 7 likes |
 | You don’t have to remember. We Know. — Yannis Ritsos, 1909-1990, Greek poet 6 likes |
| My memory is like a basement filled with old papers: nothing ever changes. — Louise Glück, 1943-2023, American poet, Nobel 2020 2 likes |
Funny Quotes
 | Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film. — Steven Wright, 1955-, American comedian 5 likes |
Ancient Greek
 | Remember the favor you have received and forget the favor you have given. Χάριν λαβών μέμνησο και δους επιλαθού. — Menander, 4th cent. BC, Ancient Greek dramatist (New Comedy) 12 likes |
Proverbs
 | Difficult to bear, sweet to remember. — Indian proverb 4 likes |
Movie Quotes
 | - Do you ever have déjà vu, Mrs. Lancaster? - I don't think so, but I could check with the kitchen. — from the film Groundhog Day (1993) 3 likes |
 | Now...where was I? — from the film Memento (2000) 3 likes |
