Memory Quotes

With memory set smarting like a reopened wound, a man's past is not simply a dead history, an outworn preparation of the present: it is not a repented error shaken loose from the life: it is a still quivering part of himself, bringing shudders and bitter flavors and the tinglings of a merited shame. ~ Middlemarch by George Eliot Grace Stepney's mind was like a kind of moral fly-paper, to which the buzzing items of gossip were drawn by a fatal attraction, and where they hung fast in the toils of an inexorable memory. ~ The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton Memory is a net; one finds it full of fish when he takes it from the brook; but a dozen miles of water have run through it without sticking. ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Recollections of the past and visions of the present come to bear me company; the meanest man to whom I have ever given alms appears, to add his mite of peace and comfort to my stock; and whenever the fire within me shall grow cold, to light my path upon this earth no more, I pray that it may be at such an hour as this, and when I love the world as well as I do now. ~ Master Humphrey's Clock by Charles Dickens "Lord keep my memory green!" ~ The Haunted Man by Charles Dickens "There is no refuge from memory and remorse in this world. The spirits of our foolish deeds haunt us, with or without repentance." ~ Mrs. Falchion by Gilbert Parker Memory is man's greatest friend and worst enemy. ~ Romany of the Snows by Gilbert Parker Joy and grief were mingled in the cup; but there were no bitter tears: for even grief itself arose so softened, and clothed in such sweet and tender recollections, that it became a solemn pleasure, and lost all character of pain. ~ Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens The memories which peaceful country scenes call up, are not of this world, nor of its thoughts and hopes. Their gentle influence may teach us how to weave fresh garlands for the graves of those we loved: may purify our thoughts, and bear down before it old enmity and hatred; but beneath all this, there lingers, in the least reflective mind, a vague and half-formed consciousness of having held such feelings long before, in some remote and distant time, which calls up solemn thoughts of distant times to come, and bends down pride and worldliness beneath it. ~ Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens And from that hour his poor maimed spirit, only remembering the place where it had broken its wings, cancelled the dream through which it had since groped, and knew of nothing beyond the Marshalsea. ~ Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens