Sunday, November 13, 2011 – Forgetting Things
There are three side effects of acid: enhanced long-term memory, decreased short-term memory, and I forget the third. ~ Timothy Leary
All things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams. ~ Elias Canetti
God and I both knew what it meant once; now God alone knows. ~ Friedrich Klopstock
It is sometimes expedient to forget what you know. [Etiam oblivisci quod scis interdum expedit.] ~ Syrus (Publilius Syrus)
Through memory we travel against time, through forgetfulness we follow its course. ~ Joseph Joubert
Space, like time, engenders forgetfulness; but it does so by setting us bodily free from our surroundings and giving us back our primitive, unattached state. ~ Thomas Mann
To forget is the great secret of strong creative natures; to forget is the way nature herself who knows no past and who at every hour begins the mysteries of her untiring labors afresh. ~ Honore de Balzac
Every composer knows the anguish and despair occasioned by forgetting ideas which one had no time to write down. ~ Hector Berlioz
Diligent as one must be in learning, one must be as diligent in forgetting; otherwise the process is one of pedantry, not culture. ~ Albert J. Nock
I’ve a grand memory for forgetting. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson
Isn’t elegance forgetting what one is wearing? ~ Yves Saint Laurent
Love is so short, forgetting is so long. ~ Pablo Neruda
Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but forgetting where you heard it. ~ Laurence J. Peter
The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. ~ Milan Kundera
We are weighed down, every moment, by the conception and the sensation of Time. And there are but two means of escaping and forgetting this nightmare: pleasure and work. Pleasure consumes us. Work strengthens us. Let us choose. ~ Charles Baudelaire
When suffering comes, we yearn for some sign from God, forgetting we have just had one. ~ Mignon McLaughlin
There is nothing new except what has been forgotten. ~ Marie Antoinette
Without forgetting it is quite impossible to live at all. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Part of the function of memory is to forget; the omni-retentive mind will break down and produce at best an idiot savant who can recite a telephone book, and at worst a person to whom every grudge and slight is as yesterday’s. ~ Christopher Hitchens
The existence of forgetting has never been proved: we only know that some things do not come to our mind when we want them to. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Forget and forgive. This is not difficult when properly understood. It means forget inconvenient duties, then forgive yourself for forgetting. By rigid practice and stern determination, it comes easy. ~ Mark Twain
To confer dignity, forgive. To express contempt, forget. ~ Mason Cooley
A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen. ~ Edward de Bono
Every man’s memory is his private literature. ~ Aldous Huxley
During the 1960s, I think, people forgot what emotions were supposed to be. And I don’t think they’ve ever remembered. ~ Andy Warhol
Man is a messenger who forgot the message. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel
People change and forget to tell each other. ~ Lillian Hellman
Experience is what you have after you’ve forgotten her name. ~ Milton Berle
In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this. ~ Terry Pratchett
Nobody is forgotten when it is convenient to remember him. ~ Benjamin Disraeli
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names. ~ John F. Kennedy
The honest poor can sometimes forget poverty. The honest rich can never forget it. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton
I never deny. I never contradict. I sometimes forget. ~ Benjamin Disraeli
I drink to forget I drink. ~ Joe E. Lewis
A friend who cannot at a pinch remember a thing or two that never happened is as bad as one who does not know how to forget. ~ Samuel Butler
Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again? ~ A. A. Milne
You’ve got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail. ~ Charlie Parker
Just Above Sunset 