Quotes About Recollections

The essence of memory is not in the storage of information, but in the emotions we hold, in the meaning we give to our recollections, in relationships that, because we remember them, stay alive. The friends of my childhood, the pain of a goodbye, the meeting with a special person, a wonderful September afternoon, and so forth—all these are not merely items I keep in an archive. They are vital ingredients of my history.

He owned a whole world full of memories, of lovely moments relived and happy recollections. I'm not saying he was happy or that he didn't suffer. He suffered very much, but he did not despair; he still drew nourishment from what he had been given. But the sadness never left him. Happiness needs more than memories of the past to feed on; it also needs dreams of the future.

Hubo un tiempo en que los hombres contaban.

My father was a very funny man, and one of my strongest recollections is hearing him laugh. He didn't like people who had no sense of humour.

Scents bring memories, and many memories bring nostalgic pleasure. We would be wise to plan for this when we plant a garden.

Memories sing to us, he told me. They're birds whose songs never fade.

Memories are hunting horns whose sound dies on the wind.

Few as they had been, they were thick with memories.

It was this feeling which had impelled him to visit once more those places familiar to his youth, to live over again in memory those dear, painfully sweet recollections of his childhood, overshadowed with a poetical sadness, to wound his soul once more with the sweet grief of recalling that which was for ever past—the irrevocable purity and clearness of his first impressions of life.

And sad memories eventually spoil thoughts of the places that recall them. And if they happen to be our birthplaces, those memories are liable to be even harsher and more poignant. (644)

Obviously, I played two years in Hartford and I have a lot of fond memories.

You always remember firsts, right? First girlfriend, first kiss and first playoff series.

My earliest recollections are of the teeming East Side where I was born. This Hester Street and its surrounding streets were the most densely populated of any city on Earth; and looking back at it, I realize what I owe to its unique and crowded humanity.

It goes on and on, and finally there are only others' recollections of your behavior—your bizarre, frenetic, aimless behaviors—for mania has at least some grace in partially obliterating memories.

Memory, I realize, can be an unreliable thing; often it is heavily coloured by the circumstances in which one remembers, and no doubt this applies to certain of the recollections I have gathered here. 

No one can erase the stories.

Bygone troubles are good to tell.

It's odd how one's memories of youth turn out so bleak. Why does the business of growing up—one's recollections of growth itself—have to be so tragic? I still haven't found the answer. I doubt if anybody has. When I finally reach that stage at which the placid wisdom of old age... occasionally descends on a person, then I too may suddenly discover that I understand. But I doubt whether, by that time, understanding will have much point.

These are my recollections. If you remember things differently, send me your version—but only if it's funnier.

It is the prowess of scholars that meetings bring delight and departures leave memories.

I prefer selective memories. Some songs and some co-workers are all that I want to remember, as memories are not always so pleasant.

You remember the dates that changed your life.

He would wake to see the towers and minarets printed on the exhausted, dust-powdered sky, and see as if en montage on them the giant footprints of the historical memory which lies behind the recollections of individual personality, its mentor and guide: indeed its inventor, since man is only an extension of the spirit of place.

Memories are simply moments that refuse to be ordinary