“If you sit with your memories, you might as well become a plant.”
Source: On the dilemma faced by his protagonist in The Angel of History in “Rabih Alameddine: 'I think we lose something once we get accepted'” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/09/rabih-alameddine-the-angel-of-history in The Guardian (2016 Oct 9)
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Rabih Alameddine 14
Lebanese-American painter and writer. 1959Related quotes

“If you're going to sit on someone's tombstone, you might as well know something about them, right?”
Source: A Walk to Remember

Song lyrics, The Basement Tapes (1975), This Wheel's on Fire (recorded in 1967)

“Preserve your memories, keep them well, what you forget you can never retell.”

Song lyrics, The Basement Tapes (1975), This Wheel's on Fire (recorded in 1967)

Response to criticism by former Liberal Foreign Minister Alexander Downer
"Julia Gillard slams Downer over security" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW4NtYIu2XE, in ABC News, 30 July 2010

The origins of this quote are unknown. At least two sources can be traced back, but these sources date back to the 1940 years; long time after Lincon's death.
Source 1: The 2003 "Masonic Historiology" from Allotter J. McKowe contains on page 55 (page 55 is dated on Jan. 11, 1944) the poem " What Is a Boy? http://books.google.de/books?id=K5CHWRttt-gC&pg=PA55&dq=desk" from an unknown author. The poem reads:
:: He is a person who is going to carry on what you have started.
:: He is to sit right where you are sitting and attend when you are gone to those things you think are so important.
:: You may adopt all the policies you please, but how they will be carried out depends on him.
:: Even if you make leagues and treaties, he will have to manage them.
:: He is going to sit at your desk in the Senate, and occupy your place on the Supreme Bench.
:: He will assume control of your cities, states and nations.
:: He is going to move in and take over your prisons, churches, schools, universities and corporations.
:: All your work is going to be judged and praised or condemned by him.
:: Your reputation and your future are in his hands.
:: All you work is for him, and the fate of the nations and of humanity is in his hands. Quotes about life http://www.quotesaboutlifee.com/2012/04/best-quotes-on-life-best-sayings-on.html
:: So it might be well to pay him some attention.
Source 2: The newspaper "The Florence Times" from Florence, Alabama (Volume 72 - Number 120) contains in its Wednesday afternoon edition from October 30, 1940 a statement from a Dr. Frank Crane. The entitled "What is a Boy?" statement http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1842&dat=19401030&id=yx8sAAAAIBAJ&sjid=I7oEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3738,3720511 reads:
Disputed

Quoted in Insights in India https://www.insightsonindia.com/2014/07/27/knowledge-is-power-a-guide-to-upsc-exam-preparation-by-divya-s-iyer-ias/