Skip to content

One would never have guessed that the world had such a capacity for genuine grief. The most we can do is exploit our memories of his excellence.

— John Cheever The Journals of John Cheever (1991)

Another quote →

Notes from Wikiquote

The Sixties, 1963 entry.

Topics

Memory

More quotes by John Cheever

Wisdom we know is the knowledge of good and evil not the strength to choose between the two.

The Journals of John Cheever (1991)

I do not understand the capricious lewdness of the sleeping mind.

The Journals of John Cheever (1991)

All literary men are Red Sox fans—to be a Yankee fan in a literate society is to endanger your life.

When the beginnings of self-destruction enter the heart it seems no bigger than a grain of sand.

The Journals of John Cheever (1991)

The need to write comes from the need to make sense of one’s life and discover one’s usefulness.

All John Cheever quotes →

You may also like

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: John Cheever (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.