Memory Quotes
Memory has a small number of very good, well-sourced lines. Oscar Wilde, in The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), calls it the diary we all carry about with us. William James, in The Principles of Psychology (1890), says that forgetting is as important a function of the intellect as recollecting. Ray Bradbury, in Long After Midnight (1976), says that God gives us dreadful gifts and the most dreadful is memory.
The flagged lines are the kind that circulate on social media. “Remember me with smiles and laughter” is credited to Laura Ingalls Wilder, “Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory” to Dr. Seuss, and a line about the sap in the trees carrying the memory of the red man to Chief Seattle. All three are marked misattributed.
In plucking the fruit of memory one runs the risk of spoiling its bloom.
My theme is memory, that winged host that soared about me one grey morning of war-time.
A memory is what is left behind when something happens and does not completely unhappen.
A very great Memory often forgetteth how much Time is lost by repeating things of no Use.
It may be said that his wit shines at the expense of his memory.
I have always had a bad memory, as far back as I can remember.
Memory is the fear, and I play most of my repertoire from memory.
But he will have his memories, Lance - long after we've forgotten him.
Often, like the evening sun, comes the memory of former times on my soul.
Memory is a swindler, a forger emeritus of facts and figures.
If you sit with your memories, you might as well become a plant.
One thing you will learn from a lifetime of biting your tongue; memories lose their flavors.