We are so constituted that we believe the most incredible things, and once they are engraved upon the memory, woe to him who would endeavor to erase them.

People are trapped in history, and history is trapped in them.

Memories are like corks left out of bottles. They swell. They no longer fit.

The true art of memory is the art of attention.

Reminiscences make one feel so deliciously aged and sad.

History is a people’s memory, and without a memory man is demoted to the level of the lower animals.

Everyone complains about his memory, and no one complains about his judgment.

Memory is the only
afterlife I can understand.

The charm, one might say the genius, of memory is that it is choosy, chancy, and temperamental: it rejects the edifying cathedral and indelibly photographs the small boy outside, chawing a hunk of melon in the dust.

I’ve a grand memory for forgetting.

Time robs us of all, even of memory.

Anyone who in discussion quotes authority uses his memory rather than his intellect.

Midnight shakes the memory
As a madman shakes a dead geranium.