Quotes About Experience

History repeats itself only in that, from afar, we all seem to lead exactly the same life. We are all born; we all spend time here on earth; we all die. But, up close, we have each walked down our own separate paths. We have stood at our own lonely crossroads. We have touched the lives of others at crucial points, for better or for worse. In the end, each of us has lived a unique life story, astounding and complicated, a story taht could never be repeated.

A memory is left when something happens and does not completely un-happen.

A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely un-happen

But even in extreme old age, especially in old age, one shouldn't forget one's dick.

Every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the second more personal and important, from himself.

The clam of peace and prosperity was once more experienced in the provinces;

All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.... You can describe all the externals of a performance - everything, in fact, but what really constitutes its core. Explaining something makes it go away, so to speak; what's important is what's left over after you've explained everything else.

I tend to think life is pastiche: I'm not sure what it's a pastiche of - we haven't found out yet.

If we can widen the range of experiences beyond what we as individuals have encountered, if we can draw upon the experiences of others who've had to confront comparable situations in the past, then - although there are no guarantees - our chances of acting wisely should increase proportionately.

In my youth I loved climbing and scrambling up rocks and mountains: now I seldom intrude on the dweller of a second story, and my greatest enemy or friend may avoid me altogether on the third; so humbled is the aspiring spirit of my youth.

New Orleans is a city you must visit when you're young and foolish but return to when you're wiser and still searching for your dreams.

It was a curious sort of immortality. Everyone in the world would repeat one hour, forever, and never realize that time had come to a quivering halt at that point. And Myron Castleman would be permitted to live forever, piling up experiences and memories, but each of only an hour's duration, each resumed at 12:01 PM on this balmy spring day in Manhattan, standing outside near the Grand Central Tower.

A man does not learn very well, Mr. Robbins. Women, yes, because they are used to bending with whatever wind comes along. A woman, no matter the age, is always learning, always becoming.

As we grow older, we become more aware of the larger flow of life

Was this the triumph of self-knowledge: to suffer more lucidly?

The shock of standing again under the wide pale sky, completely exposed. This must be what the oyster feels when the lemon juice falls.

What was the thread that held together the scattered beads of experience if not the pressure of interpretation? The meaning of life was whatever meaning one could thrust down its reluctant throat.

What if memories were just memories, without any consolatory or persecutory power? Would they exist at all, or was it always emotional pressure that summoned images from what was potentially all of experience so far?

made him more conscious of how little experience he had of saying what he meant.

So much road and so few places, so much friendliness and so little intimacy, so much flavour and so little taste.

The mess that's emerging...at least reflects the truth of my experience, the fact that every contemplation is interrupted, and that every interruption becomes further object of contemplation, and that this rhythm of delusion and revelation feels as if it's essential to the nature of consciousness considering itself.

Great wine works wonders and is itself one

last year, says Guido. A bit less sugar and slightly higher total acidity. That's just what he wanted. Still, he tries to find a few nits to pick.

The fear of man is the sinful exaggeration of a normal experience.