Quotes about memorial page 15
“Cato said the best way to keep good acts in memory was to refresh them with new.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author
No. 247
Apophthegms (1624)
Walter Benjamin book Theses on the Philosophy of History
Variant translation:
To articulate what is past does not mean to recognize “how it really was.” It means to take control of a memory, as it flashes in a moment of danger. For historical materialism it is a question of holding fast to a picture of the past, just as if it had unexpectedly thrust itself, in a moment of danger, on the historical subject. The danger threatens the stock of tradition as much as its recipients. For both it is one and the same: handing itself over as the tool of the ruling classes. In every epoch, the attempt must be made to deliver tradition anew from the conformism which is on the point of overwhelming it. For the Messiah arrives not merely as the Redeemer; he also arrives as the vanquisher of the Anti-christ. The only writer of history with the gift of setting alight the sparks of hope in the past, is the one who is convinced of this: that not even the dead will be safe from the enemy, if he is victorious. And this enemy has not ceased to be victorious.
As translated by Dennis Redmond (2001)
Theses on the Philosophy of History (1940)
Context: To articulate the past historically does not mean to recognize it ‘the way it really was’ (Ranke). It means to seize hold of a memory as it flashes up at a moment of danger. Historical materialism wishes to retain that image of the past which unexpectedly appears to man singled out by history at a moment of danger. The danger affects both the content of the tradition and its receivers. The same threat hangs over both: that of becoming a tool of the ruling classes. In every era the attempt must be made anew to wrest tradition away from a conformism that is about to overpower it. The Messiah comes not only as the redeemer, he comes as the subduer of Antichrist. Only that historian will have the gift of fanning the spark of hope in the past who is firmly convinced that even the dead will not be safe from the enemy if he wins. And this enemy has not ceased to be victorious.
Chief Seattle (1786–1866) Duwamish chief
Statement on surrendering tribal lands to Isaac Stevens, governor of Washington Territory (1855)
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet
This passage has sometimes been paraphrased as "History is a cyclic poem written by Time upon the memories of man". <br class="br"> A Defence of Poetry http://www.bartleby.com/27/23.html (1821)
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet
Thoughts Suggested on the Banks of the Nith, st. 10.
Memorials of a Tour in Scotland (1803)
“Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory.”
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French Enlightenment philosopher and encyclopædist
As quoted in A Dictionary of Thoughts : Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations (1908) by Tryon Edwards, p. 338
Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 14, “The Name of the Wind” (p. 113)
“The tiger is humbled by memories of prey.”
Steven Erikson book Memories of Ice
Final thoughts of Treach, the Tiger of Summer
Memories of Ice (2001)
Damian Pettigrew Canadian filmmaker
On Fellini’s last film project, Attore
Federico Fellini: Sou um Grande Mentiroso (2008)
“While memory lasts and pulses beat,
The thought of Dido shall be sweet.”
John Conington (1825–1869) British classical scholar
Source: Translations, The Aeneid of Virgil (1866), Book IV, p. 124
Orson Scott Card book Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)
“I have always had a bad memory, as far back as I can remember.”
Lewis Thomas (1913–1993) American physician, poet and educator
"Amity Street", p. 1
The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine Watcher (1983)
Jeff Flake (1962) American politician
Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
Speech in the U.S. Senate (2017)
“With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves, let me forget about today until tomorrow.”
Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist
Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Mr. Tambourine Man
Alain Finkielkraut (1949) French essayist, born 1949
Source: The Undoing of Thought (1988), pp. 25-26.
Heather Langenkamp (1964) actress
Heather Langenkamp Reveals Why She'll Never Watch 'Nightmare on Elm Street' Remak http://toofab.com/2017/02/27/heather-langenkamp-reveals-why-shell-never-watch-nightmare-on-elm-street-remake-exclusive/ (February 28, 2017)
Thomas Creech (1659–1700) English translator
T. Lucretius Carus the Epicurean Philosopher, His Six Books De Natura Rerum Done into English Verse (1682), Book III, lines 820–840
“We can make this thing into a Party, instead of a Memory.”
Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer
Letter to Al Smith regarding the Democratic party (19 January 1929)
Other
William Allen Butler (1825–1902) American lawyer
Incognita of Raphael, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations 10th ed. (1919).
Chế Lan Viên (1920–1989) Vietnamese writer
"Skull", in A Thousand Years of Vietnamese Poetry, ed. Nguyễn Ngọc Bích (Alfred A. Knopf, 1975), ISBN 978-0394494722, p. 166 <br class="br"> Original in Vietnamese https://www.asymptotejournal.com/poetry/che-lan-vien-to-a-skull/vietnamese/, and an English translation by Hai-Dang Phan https://www.asymptotejournal.com/poetry/che-lan-vien-to-a-skull/, available at Asymptote.
Harbhajan Singh (1980) Indian cricketer
Interview with Indian Express http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/i-always-say-i-am-the-best-harbhajan-singh/, January 25, 2016.
“As I have said so often before, the long memory is the most radical idea in America….”
Utah Phillips (1935–2008) American labor organizer, folk singer, storyteller and poet
on a CD called The Long Memory (1996)
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)
1920s, Proclamation Upon the Death of Woodrow Wilson (1924)
George Horne (1730–1792) English churchman, writer and university administrator
Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay, 1880
“Before adolescence, memory is more interested in the future than the past…”
Gabriel García Márquez book Living to Tell the Tale
Living to Tell the Tale (2002)
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) Poet, essayist, physician
A good Time going; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
John McCain (1936–2018) politician from the United States
2010s, 2016, Statement regarding the Khan family (1 August 2016)
Muhammad Asad book The Road to Mecca
And I know with startling clarity that such an undertaking might indeed take an entire lifetime.
Page 48.
The Road to Mecca (1954)
Paul Klee (1879–1940) German Swiss painter
Statement of mid-1920'; as quoted in Abstract Art (1990) by Anna Moszynska, p. 100
1921 - 1930
Sita Ram Goel book The Story of Islamic Imperialism in India
The Story of Islamic Imperialism in India (1994)
Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman
1870s, Oratory in Memory of Abraham Lincoln (1876)
Will Eisner (1917–2005) American cartoonist
Source: The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (10/2/2005), p.113
“The fountain of youth resides in our memory. You will never outlive your shadow.”
Lorin Morgan-Richards (1975) American poet, cartoonist, and children's writer
as quoted in Barry GEM "Barry GEM" http://www.barry-today.co.uk/article.cfm?id=102602&headline=Book%20on%20the%20trail%20of%20%20the%20Welsh%20Americans&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2016 "Book on the trail of the Welsh Americans” (20 January 2016).
Dan Simmons book The Rise of Endymion
Source: The Rise of Endymion (1997), Chapter 27 (p. 578)
“Memory is the fear, and I play most of my repertoire from memory.”
Joanna MacGregor (1959) British musician
The Express on Sunday, 06/01/2002
Musician's life
Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) President of South Africa, anti-apartheid activist
1990s, The International Day Of Solidarity With The Palestinian People (1997)
“Sound peculiarly appeals to memory.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist
Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)
Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978) American writer and art critic
Source: Art & Other Serious Matters, (1985), p. 273, "Being Outside"
Svetlana Alexievich (1948) Belarusian investigative journalist and non-fiction prose writer
Quotes from Nobel Lecture
Elias Lyman Magoon (1810–1886) American minister
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 354.
Ramsay MacDonald (1866–1937) British statesman; prime minister of the United Kingdom
Speech at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester (24 May 1929), quoted in David Marquand, Ramsay MacDonald (Metro, 1997), p. 487
1920s
Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)
Page 281
2000s, Promises to Keep (2008)
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author
His will (1626)
Randall Jarrell book Pictures from an Institution
When I asked him how he had thought of it he said placidly: “De devil soldt me his soul.”
Source: Pictures from an Institution (1954) [novel], Chapter 4: “Constance and the Rosenbaums”, p. 136
George Long (1800–1879) English classical scholar
An Old Man's Thoughts on Many Things, Of Education I
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist
Mrs. Bathurst http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/TrafficsDiscoveries/bathurst.html (1904). <br class="br">Other works
“We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life.”
Edwin Markham (1852–1940) American poet
William Grey Walter (1910–1977) American-born British neuroscientist and roboticist
Source: The Living Brain (1953), p. 120–121.
Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman
1870s, Oratory in Memory of Abraham Lincoln (1876)
Steven Novella (1964) American neurologist, skepticist
SGU, Podcast #122, November 20th, 2007 http://www.theskepticsguide.org/podcast/sgu/122 <br class="br">The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, Podcast, 2000s
Charles Rosen (1927–2012) American pianist and writer on music
Source: The Romantic Generation (1995), Ch. 3 : Mountains and Song Cycles
Sarah McLachlan (1968) Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter
I Will Remember You, written by Sarah McLachlan, Séamus Egan and Dave Merenda
Song lyrics, The Brothers McMullen soundtrack (1995)
Francis Escudero (1969) Filipino politician
Escudero, F. [Francis]. (2015, July 7). Retrieved from Official Facebook Page of Francis Escudero https://www.facebook.com/senchizescudero/posts/10153411040670610/ <br class="br">2015, Facebook
Simon Stevin (1548–1620) Flemish scientist, mathematician and military engineer
Disme: the Art of Tenths, Or, Decimall Arithmetike (1608)
“But he will have his memories, Lance - long after we've forgotten him.”
Alice Evans (1971) British actress
"Megarace 2" 1996.
Vyjayanthimala (1936) Indian actress, politician & dancer
Vyjayanthimala still cuts a striking figure tall
Elizabeth Loftus (1944) American cognitive psychologist
I could have sworn...Why you can’t trust your memory https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21929310-400-i-could-have-sworn-why-you-cant-trust-your-memory/ (8/21/2013)
Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861–1907) British writer
Mandragora, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi
Source: Who Is Man? (1965), Ch. 4
Alberto Gonzales (1955) 80th United States Attorney General
Speech to U.S. Attorneys’ National Security Conference (January 11, 2007)
Isabelle Adjani (1955) French actress
Joyeux Anniversaire Isabelle Adjani http://www.city-connect.org/happy-birthday-isabelle-adjani/.
Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015) American painter, sculptor, and printmaker
Source: 1969 - 1980, In: "Ellsworth Kelly: Works on Paper," 1987, p. unknown : 'Notes from 1969'
Kurt Lewin (1890–1947) German-American psychologist
Source: 1930s, A Dynamic Theory of Personality, 1935, p. v.
Bruce Palmer Jr. (1913–2000) United States Army Chief of Staff
Source: The 25-Year War: America's Military Role in Vietnam (1984), p. vii-viii
John Henry Boner (1845–1903) American writer
Gather Leaves and Grasses, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Tenzin Gyatso (1935) spiritual leader of Tibet
Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations with The Dalai Lama on Brain Science and Buddhism (1999) ISBN 1559391278
Robert E. Machol (1917–1998) American systems engineer
p ix-x
Information and Decision Processes (1960)
“Imagination, he realized, came harder than memory.”
John Irving book The World According to Garp
The World According to Garp, ch. 5
Daniel Webster (1782–1852) Leading American senator and statesman. January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852. Served as the Secretary of Sta…
Source: Discourse in Commemoration of Adams and Jefferson (1826), p. 146
James A. Garfield (1831–1881) American politician, 20th President of the United States (in office in 1881)
1870s, An Appeal to Young Men (1879)