Quotes About Memory

Memory, then, not so much as the past contained within us, but as proof of our life in the present. If a man is to be truly present among his surroundings, he must be thinking not of himself, but of what he sees. He must forget himself in order to be there. And from that forgetfulness arises the power of memory. It is a way of living one's life so that nothing is ever lost.

Time moved in two directions because every step into the future carried a memory of the past

For it is only in the darkness of solitude that the work of memory begins.

The past, to repeat the words of Proust, is hidden in some material object. To wander about in the world, then, is also to wander about in ourselves.

Yes, it is possible that we do not grow up, that even as we grow old, we remain the children we always were. We remember ourselves as we were then, and we feel ourselves to be the same. We made ourselves into what we are now then, and we remain what we were, in spite of the years. We do not change for ourselves. Time makes us grow old, but we do not change.

These are the last things, she wrote. One by one they disappear and never come back. I can tell you of the ones I have seen, of the ones that are no more, but I doubt there will be time. It is all happening too fast now, and I cannot keep up.

La primera vez que entendía que la memoria es un lugar, un sitio de verdad al que se podía ir

He finds a fresh sheet of paper. He lays it out on the table before him and writes these words with his pen. It was. It will never be again. Remember.

La memoria è una gran benedizione, Peter. E' la cosa più bella dopo la morte.

I can't remember everything we talked about, but the beginning of that conversation is a lot clearer to me than the end. By the time we came to the last half hour or forty-five minutes, there was so much bourbon in my system that I was actually seeing double. This had never happened to me before, and I had no idea how to bring the world back into focus.

B?röm az illanó érzetek palimpszesztje lett, és minden réteg annak a nyomát viselte, aki voltam.

We promised to stay in touch with each other, but of course we never did, and that was the last time I ever saw her. 'You're

That was sixty-five springs ago, and I can still see him sitting at his desk, scribbling away at his youthful memoirs as the light poured through the window, catching the dust particles that danced around him. If I concentrate hard enough, I can still hear the breath going in and out of his lungs, I can still hear the point of his pen scratching across the paper.

It's not just that things vanish--but once they vanish, the memory of them vanishes as well. Dark areas form in the brain, and unless you make a constant effort to summon up the things that are gone, they will quickly be lost to you forever...try to remember it, try to memorise all the beautiful things you are seeing, and in that way they will always be with you, even when you can't see them anymore... I wanted everything to belong to me, for all that beauty to be a part of what I was.

I think I would like that, knowing it had wound up in that room. Up on one of the shelves above my bed, for example, along with my old dolls and the ballerina costume I had when I was seven--one last thing to remember me by.

Nothing lasts, you see, not even the thoughts inside you. And you mustn't waste your time looking for them. Once a thing is gone, that is the end of it.

Mildred was capable of crying, but there they were weeping in front of him as they said good-bye to each other, both of them understanding that it could be months or years before they saw each other again, and Ferguson saw it as he stood below them in his five-year-old's body, looking up at his mother and his aunt, stunned by the excess of emotion pouring out of them, and the image traveled to a place so deep inside him that he never forgot it.

No es que no pensara más en él, sino que parecía interesarse más por su recuerdo que por continuar en contacto

Una cosa scompare e se aspetti troppo prima di ripensarla non c'è sforzo che possa farla riapparire. Dopo tutto, la memoria non è un atto di volontà. È qualcosa che accade tuo malgrado, e quando i cambiamenti sono troppo frequenti, la mente è destinata a vacillare e le cose destinate a eclissarsi in essa.

Parla ora prima che sia troppo tardi, e poi spera di continuare a parlare finché non ci sarà niente da dire. Dopotutto, il tempo sta esaurendo. Forse è meglio mettere da parte le tue storie per ora e provare ad analizzare come sia stato vivere in questo corpo dal primo giorno in cui ricordi di essere stato vivo fino a oggi.

He olvidado qué era, dijo. Yo también, dijo Camier. Yo nunca lo supe, dijo Mercier.

We don't want to know when we will die or when the people we love will betray us....we're hungry to know the dead before they were dead, to acquaint ourselves with the dead as living beings.

Beasts of burden, we shouldered bundles of what pieces of the past we were allowed to keep as we joined the river of fear, a current of shuffling feet, sobs, and whimpers that crept past dark mouths of archways and windows of Terezin.

Dead or not, he must taste my Sarah's ashes.