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Ultimately, the work of memory consists in preserving that which is worth preserving while remaining open to the future.

— Achille Mbembe

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Memory

More quotes by Achille Mbembe

The ultimate expression of sovereignty resides, to a large degree, in the power and the capacity to dictate who may live and who must die.

We are entering an era in which humanity itself is becoming the central question of politics.

The name 'Africa' evokes a multiplicity of places, experiences, and histories rather than a single reality.

The colony is not merely a place; it is also a peculiar system of signs, a particular way of fabricating reality.

To live under colonial occupation is to experience a permanent state of injury.

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Women and elephants never forget an injury.

Saki Reginald (1904)

Man should possess an infinite appetite for life. It should be self-evident to him, all the time, that life is superb, glorious, endlessly rich, infinitely desirable.

Colin Wilson The Philosopher's Stone (1969)

To live in hearts we leave behind
Is not to die.

Thomas Campbell

In the practical use of our intellect, forgetting is as important a function as recollecting.

William James The Principles of Psychology (1890)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Achille Mbembe (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.