“It is not the literal past, the 'facts' of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language.”
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Brian Friel 2
Irish dramatist, author and theatre director 1929–2015Related quotes

Source: The Nature of Personal Reality (1974), p. 355: session 654: April 9, 1973

“Our past may shape us, but it doesn't define us.”
Variant: Our past may shape us, but it doesn't define who we become.
Source: Night Star

Source: Barbarian Sentiments - How The American Century Ends (1989), Chapter 1, Dead Stars, p. 3.

“Our image of happiness is indissolubly bound up with the image of the past.”
Source: (1940), II

“Our understanding of history and the country is shaped by the images the survive.”
https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/1356274/memory-lane-personal-memories-pictures-photographs
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