“It is painful to be consciously of two worlds. The Wandering Jew in me seeks forgetfulness. I am not afraid to live on and on, if only I do not have to remember too much. A long past vividly remembered is like a heavy garment that clings to your limbs when you would run.”
Introduction
The Promised Land (1912)
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Mary Antin 4
American memoirist 1881–1949Related quotes
Dido and Aeneas (opera; music by Henry Purcell)

“Your past is always your past. Even if you forget it, it remembers you.”
What Happened To Goodbye (2011)
Source: What Happened to Goodbye

Candle in the Wind
Song lyrics, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)

"A Way to Love God", New and Selected Poems 1923–1985 (1985)
Context: I cannot recall what I started to tell you, but at least
I can say how night-long I have lain under the stars and
Heard mountains moan in their sleep. By daylight,
They remember nothing, and go about their lawful occasions
Of not going anywhere except in slow disintegration. At night
They remember, however, that there is something they cannot remember.
So moan. Their's is the perfected pain of conscience that
Of forgetting the crime, and I hope you have not suffered it. I have.

Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez (1982)