Memory Quotes

Nationalism is essentially a group memory of past achievements, traditions, and experiences.

I know my fate. One day my name will be associated with the memory of something tremendous - a crisis without equal on earth, the most profound collision of conscience, a decision that was conjured up against everything that had been believed, demanded, hallowed so far. I am no man, I am dynamite.

A person must have a good memory to keep the promises he has made. A person must have a strong imagination to be able to have pity. So closely is morality tied to the quality of the intellect.

Memory says, 'I did that.' Pride replies, 'I could not have done that.' Eventually, memory yields.

Many a man fails as an original thinker simply because his memory is too good.

I pluck up the good lissome herbs of sentences by pruning, eat them by reading, digest them by musing, and lay them up at length in the high seat of memory.

I remember the bad times as a succession of painful emotional snapshots: Me walking into the library at 24 Sussex, seeing my mother in tears, and hearing her talk about leaving while my father stood facing her, stern and ashen.

The lack of historical memory is a serious shortcoming in our society. A mentality that can only say, "Then was then, now is now", is ultimately immature. Knowing and judging past events is the only way to build a meaningful future. Memory is necessary for growth.

If the Christian is a restorationist, a legalist, if he wants everything clear and safe, then he will find nothing. Tradition and memory of the past must help us to have the courage to open up new areas to God.

The question of truth is really a question of memory, deep memory, for it deals with something prior to ourselves and can succeed in uniting us in a way that transcends our petty and limited individual consciousness. It is a question about the origin of all that is, in whose light we can glimpse the goal and thus the meaning of our common path.

A population that does not take care of the elderly and of children and the young has no future, because it abuses both its memory and its promise.

In the months since the death of my beloved Philip, I have drawn great comfort from the warmth and affection of the many tributes to his life and work - from around the country, the Commonwealth, and the world. His sense of service, intellectual curiosity and capacity to squeeze fun out of any situation - were all irrepressible. That mischievous, enquiring twinkle was as bright at the end as when I first set eyes on him.

My first day in Chicago, September 4, 1983. I set foot in this city, and just walking down the street, it was like roots, like the motherland. I knew I belonged here.

An educated man is not one whose memory is trained to carry a few dates in history - he is one who can accomplish things.

The memory of benefits is a frail defence against ingratitude.

There are four powers: memory and intellect, desire and covetousness. The two first are mental and the others sensual. The three senses sight, hearing, and smell cannot well be prevented; touch and taste not at all.

Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.

Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.

Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but rather memory.

Those who, in debate, appeal to their qualifications, argue from memory, not from understanding.