Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet read more

Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?

Remembrance wakes with all her busy train,
Swells at my breast, and turns the past to pain.

Remembrance wakes with all her busy train,
Swells at my breast, and turns the past to pain.

A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.

A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.

A moment lasts all of a second, but the memory lives on forever.

A moment lasts all of a second, but the memory lives on forever.

Don't remember what you can infer.

Don't remember what you can infer.

It is singular how soon we lose the impression of what ceases to be constantly before us. A year impairs, read more

It is singular how soon we lose the impression of what ceases to be constantly before us. A year impairs, a luster obliterates. There is little distinct left without an effort of memory, then indeed the lights are rekindled for a moment -- but who can be sure that the Imagination is not the torch-bearer?

But woe to him, who left to moan,
Reviews the hours of brightness gone.

But woe to him, who left to moan,
Reviews the hours of brightness gone.

The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.
[Lat., Vita enim mortuorum in memoria read more

The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.
[Lat., Vita enim mortuorum in memoria vivorum est posita.]

The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.

The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.