Quotes about forgetting
page 6

“We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Remarks at Amherst College (26 October 1963)
1963

“For it is only by forgetting that we ever really drop the thread of time and approach the experience of living in the present moment, so elusive in ordinary hours.”

Michael Pollan (1955) American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism

Source: The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World

Time

“We are constantly railing against the passions; we ascribe to them all of man’s afflictions, and we forget that they are also the source of all his pleasures”

Denis Diderot book Philosophical thoughts

As translated in Diderot (1977) by Otis Fellows, p. 39
Variant translations:
One declaims endlessly against the passions; one imputes all of man's suffering to them. One forgets that they are also the source of all his pleasures.
Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.
Pensées Philosophiques (1746)
Source: Pensées philosophiques
Context: We are constantly railing against the passions; we ascribe to them all of man’s afflictions, and we forget that they are also the source of all his pleasures … But what provokes me is that only their adverse side is considered … and yet only passions, and great passions, can raise the soul to great things. Without them there is no sublimity, either in morals or in creativity. Art returns to infancy, and virtue becomes small-minded.

Pleasure, Affliction, Passion

“Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.
And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

Source: Oh, The Places You'll Go!

“Its funny how you can let yourself forget for seconds, how even in the heat of the horrible, you can have moments when you fool yourself into thinking it might all be okay”

Harlan Coben book Shelter

Source: Shelter

Fools, Thinking

“Adults forget the depths of languor into which the adolescent mind decends with ease. They are prone to undervalue the mental growth that occurs during daydreaming and aimless wandering”

Edward O. Wilson (1929) American biologist

“And when you love a book, commit one glorious sentence of it-perhaps your favorite sentence-to memory. That way you won't forget the language of the story that moved you to tears.”

John Irving In One Person

Source: In One Person

Love, Books, Way, Tear

“You are a name, not a number. Never forget that name, whatever they tell you here. You will always be Chaya—life—to me.”

Jane Yolen book The Devil's Arithmetic

Source: The Devil's Arithmetic

Life

“I think the secret to a hoppy life is a selective memory. Remember what you are most grateful for and quickly forget what your not.”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

Source: Grace

Life, Secret, Thinking, Memory

“The stars will go out before I forget you, Mark Blackthorn.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Star

“You can't forget the things you did in the past, or you'll never learn from them.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Learning, Past

“The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

The Olive Tree (1936)

People

“We forget that the simple gesture of putting a book in someone's hands can change a life. I want to remind you that it can. I want to thank you because it did. - 2010 Indies Choice Award”

Kate DiCamillo (1964) American children's writer

Life, Books, Change

“Who really can face the future? All you can do is project from the past, even when the past shows that such projections are often wrong. And who really can forget the past? What else is there to know?”

Robert M. Pirsig book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Past, Future

“If it makes you feel better, I promise to forget.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Longest Ride

Source: The Longest Ride

Feeling

“We should have stories in common, I found myself thinking. We should have stories, and jokes no one understands, and memories that we know will stay alive because neither of us will let the other forget.”

Kamila Shamsie (1973) Pakistani writer

Understanding, Thinking, Memory

“Never forget that anticipation is an important part of life. Work's important, family's important, but without excitement, you have nothing. You're cheating yourself if you refuse to enjoy what's coming.”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Source: Three Weeks With My Brother

Life, Family, Parting, Cheating

“You can wipe your feet on me, twist my motives around all you like, you can dump millstones on my head and drown me in the river, but you can’t get me out of the story. I’m the plot, babe, and don’t ever forget it.”

Margaret Atwood book Good Bones

Source: Good Bones

Motivation

“You forget what you want to remember and remember what you would prefer to forget.”

Henning Mankell book The Troubled Man

Source: The Troubled Man

“You must not forget that a monster is only a variation, and that to a monster the norm is monstrous.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

“There was no solution, save that universal solution which life gives to all questions, even the most complex and insolvable: One must live in the needs of the day--that is, forget oneself.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

Life, Question, Universe

“I still forget, sometimes, that I am no longer 12 years old.”

Eugéne Ionesco (1909–1994) Romanian playwright

“Passion should believe itself irresistible. It should forget civility and consideration and all the other curses of a refined nature. Above all, it should never ask for leave where there is a right of way.”

E.M. Forster book A Room with a View

Source: A Room with a View

Way, Nature, Passion

“You can forget who you are if you're alone too much.”

Margaret Atwood book The Year of the Flood

Source: The Year of the Flood

“My heart's with you, Bill, no matter how it turns out. My heart is with all of them, and I think that, even if we forget each other, we'll remember in our dreams.”

Stephen King book It

Source: It

Dreams, Thinking, Heart

“I'm a Christian first, and a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, and don't you ever forget it.”

Ann Coulter book If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans

2007
Source: If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans (2007), p. 77 ISBN 0307408957

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Xunzi in the Xunzi (book)
Misattributed, Chinese

Understanding

“Even if you forget everything else I want you to always remember that you are a person of value, and you have a friend who loved you enough to give you his most valued possession.”

Bette Greene book Summer of My German Soldier

Source: Summer of My German Soldier

Love, Personality

“Remembering. Forgetting. I'm not sure which is worse.”

Kelley Armstrong (1968) Canadian writer

Source: The Calling

“Only one thing’s sadder than remembering you were once free, and that’s forgetting you were once free.”

Leonard Peltier (1944) Native American activist

“What I saw wasn't a ghost. It was simply--myself. I can never forget how terrified I was that night, and whenever I remember it, this thought always springs to mind: that the most frightening thing in the world is our own self. What do you think?”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

Source: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: 24 Stories

World, Spring, Thinking, Night

“Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

“What could you give me," I ask, my voice shaking, "to make me forget… that you forgot about me?”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Vanishing Acts

“Sometimes I get so caught up in my own problems that I forget how amazing the world is.”

Wendelin Van Draanen (1965) American writer

Source: Runaway

World, Problem

“Don't drink too much."
"When I can spell out your name in shot glasses, I'll stop."
"I'll have to get a shorter name."
"I'll have to forget how to spell it.”

Richard Kadrey (1957) San Francisco-based novelist, freelance writer, and photographer

Source: Kill the Dead

Drink

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.
Never shall I forget that smoke.
Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky.
Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever.
Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.
Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.
Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself.
Never.”

Elie Wiesel book Night

Source: Night (1960)

Life, God, Children, Faith

“But a sort of rupture-in anguish-leaves us at the limit of tears: in such a case we lose ourselves, we forget ourselves and communicate with an elusive beyond.”

Georges Bataille (1897–1962) French intellectual and literary figure

Communication, Tear

“People forgot; it was in the nature of people to forget, to blur boundaries, to retell stories to come out the way they wanted them to come out, to remember things as how they ought to be instead of how they were.”

Robin McKinley book Spindle's End

Source: Spindle's End

People, Way, Nature

“If he'd learned one thing while he'd been away, it was that loneliness is the most taboo subject in the world. Forget sex or politics or religion. Or even failure. Loneliness is what clears out a room.”

Douglas Coupland book Miss Wyoming

Source: Miss Wyoming

World, Religion, Sex, Failure

“Never forget a Favor, Never forgive a Slight!”

Lee Child (1954) British thriller writer

Forgiveness

“Forgetting oneself is opening oneself”

Dogen (1200–1253) Japanese Zen buddhist teacher

“… the girl with the tip-tilted nose, the forget-me-not eyes, the rose red cheeks
and the lily-white neck and shoulders who gave the explanation in a
trembling voice: “It’s the ghost!”

Gaston Leroux book The Phantom of the Opera

Source: The Phantom of the Opera

Girl

“Memory is so crazy! It's like we've got these drawers crammed with tons of useless stuff. Meanwhile, all the really important things we just keep forgetting, one after the other.”

Haruki Murakami book After Dark

Source: After Dark

Memory

“Trying to forget really doesn't work. In fact, it's pretty much the same as remembering. But I tried to forget anyway, and to ignore the fact that I was remembering you all the time.”

Rebecca Stead (1968) American children's writer

Time

“You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Source: The Road

“Yesterday and tomorrow cross and mix on the skyline. The two are lost in a purple haze. One forgets, one waits.”

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American writer and editor

Waiting

“It makes me wonder, Do we spend most of our days trying to remember or forget things? Do we spend most of our time running towards or away from our lives? I don't know.”

Markus Zusak book Fighting Ruben Wolfe

Variant: Do we spend most of our days trying to remember or to forget? Do we spend most of our time running towards or away from our lives?
Source: Fighting Ruben Wolfe

Time

“we travel far and fast
and as we pass through we forget
where we have been”

W.S. Merwin (1927–2019) American poet

Travel

“Let’s not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives and we obey them without realizing it.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

“One forgets
that one is one.
I must try
to
remember this.”

Mark Z. Danielewski book House of Leaves

Source: House of Leaves

“I'm impossible to forget, but I'm hard to remember.”

Cameron Crowe (1957) Academy Award-winning American writer and film director

“Heart, we will forget him!
You and I, to-night!
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.

When you have done, pray tell me,
That I my thoughts may dim;
Haste! lest while you're lagging,
I may remember him!”

Emily Dickinson book The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

Love, p. 172
Collected Poems (1993)
Source: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

Light, Heart, Night

“No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers words.”

Roger Zelazny Lord of Light

Source: Lord of Light

Reality

“Don't worry chief,"said foaly,"It's like riding a unicorn, you never forget.”

Eoin Colfer Artemis Fowl

Variant: It's like learning to ride a unicorn. You never forget.
Source: Artemis Fowl

“Ah, now, don't cry over lost years and forgetfulness. The tales tell what they can. The rest is for us to learn..”

Shannon Hale The Goose Girl

Source: The Goose Girl

Learning, Cry

“Roger speaking to Brianna:
It's too important. You don't forget having a dad."
You do remember your father?"
No. I remember yours.”

Diana Gabaldon (1952) American author

Source: An Echo in the Bone

“No one forgets the truth; they just get better at lying.”

Richard Yates book Revolutionary Road

Source: Revolutionary Road

Truth, Lying, Sad

“I don’t want to forget any of this. The way he’s looking at me at this very moment. How, when he kisses me, I still get shivers down my back, every time. I want to hold on to everything so tight.”

Jenny Han book Always and Forever, Lara Jean

Source: Always and Forever, Lara Jean

Way, Kiss, Time

“When a nation forgets her skill in war, when her religion becomes a mockery, when the whole nation becomes a nation of money-grabbers, then the wild tribes, the barbarians drive in… Who will our invaders be? From whence will they come?”

Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) American author

From a letter to Tevis Clyde Smith (July 1923)
Letters

Money, War, Religion

“I do think that men can forget a lost love quickly. I know that women would find it much harder.”

Jane Austen book Persuasion

Source: Persuasion

Love, Women, Men, Thinking

“Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Memory

“This world of ours is piled high with farewells and goodbyes of so many different kinds, like the evening sky renewing itself again and again from one instant to the next-and I didn’t want to forget a single one.”

Banana Yoshimoto book Goodbye Tsugumi

Source: Goodbye Tsugumi

World

“Life forgets me but will not let me forget
Holds me down and tells me that I'm free.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Source: See A Grown Man Cry/Now Watch Him Die

Life

“He had to keep thinking of them because if he forgot them and did not think of them they might forget about him. And he had to keep hoping.”

Gary Paulsen book Hatchet

Source: Hatchet

Hope, Thinking

“Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

This maxim (perhaps of gambling or horse racing origin) is widely attributed to Warren Buffett and, as such, has traditionally been cited in print; notably, it was attributed (perhaps facetiously) to him by Mary Buffett in, The Tao of Warren Buffett. A more uncommon, less well known version, and perhaps one with a more lasting credibility (or certainly with a higher degree of checkability), would be: "The first rule is don't lose, and the second rule is never forget the first rule." This version was noted by Steve Forbes in a friendly meeting in Omaha, in an article published as: Jay-Z, Buffett and Forbes on Success and Giving Back. This article is available on the Forbes website, published on September 23, 2010.
Disputed
Variant: Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1.

Money