Souvenir Quotes

“I woan let you go back to that boy--not until you give me one bec doux." A sweet kiss. Then he reached forward, unlacing the ribbon from my hair.

"What are you doing?" I murmured.

"Souvenir." He put it in his pocket, and for some reason that struck me as the sexiest thing I'd ever seen.”
― Kresley Cole, Poison Princess

“Ever poised on that cusp between past and future, we tie memories to souvenirs like string to trees along life’s path, marking the trail in case we lose ourselves around a bend of tomorrow’s road.”
― Susan Lendroth

“An odd thing souvenir-hunting: now becomes then even while it is still now.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

“What went away was never yours
Why whine and shed tears?
If you loved it so much
Hide it in your heart as souvenir…”
― Neelam Saxena Chandra

“We seem incapable of looking at buildings or pieces of furniture without tying them to the historical and personal circumstances of our viewing; as a result, architectural and decorative styles become, for us, emotional souvenirs of the moments and settings in which we came across them.”
― Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness

“The index finger was never found. Hodges thought that a seagull – one of the big boys that patrolled the lakeshore – might have seized it and carried it away. He preferred that idea to the grisly alternative: that an unhurt City Centre survivor had taken it as a souvenir.”
― Stephen King, Mr. Mercedes

“Je vais être minuscule, mais j'ai hâte, car il y a de la noblesse à éprouver son insignifiance, de la noblesse à savoir qu'un coup de vent peut balayer nos vies et ne rien laisser derrière nous, pas même le vague souvenir d'une petite existence.”
― Laurent Gaudé, Ouragan

“Whether he talked or not made little difference to my mood. My only enemy was the clock on the dashboard, whose hands would move relentlessly to one o'clock. We drove east, we drove west, amidst the myriad villages that cling like limpets to the Mediterranean shore, and today I remember none of them. All I remember is the feel of the leather seats, the texture of the map upon my knee, its frayed edges, its worn seams, and how one day, looking at the clock, I thought to myself, 'This moment now, at twenty past eleven, this must never be lost, ' and I shut my eyes to make the experience more lasting. When I opened my eyes we were by a bend in the road, and a peasant girl in a black shawl waved to us; I can see her now, her dusty skirt, her gleaming, friendly smile, and in a second we had passed the bend and could see her no more. Already she belonged to the past, she was only a memory. I wanted to go back again, to recapture the moment that had gone, and then it came to me that if we did it would not be the same, even the sun would be changed in the sky, casting another shadow, and the peasant girl would trudge past us along the road in a different way, not waving this time, perhaps not even seeing us. There was something chilling in the thought, something a little melancholy, and looking at the clock I saw that five more minutes had gone by. Soon we would have reached our time limit, and must return to the hotel. 'If only there could be an invention', I said impulsively, 'that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again." (Rebecca, chapter five)”
― Daphne du Maurier

“Le souvenir est une impulsion électrique comme une autre.”
― Sylvain Tesson, Dans les forêts de Sibérie

“The remembrance of a woman is longer than a tear. (Le souvenir d'une femme - Est plus long qu'une larme.)”
― Charles de Leusse

“Dans les jours d'après nous distribuerons tes soixante-dix-sept peluches, une par une ou deux par deux, à des fossés dans les campagnes, à des clairières, à des rochers. C'est joli, ces ours, ces lapins, ces petits chats abandonnés sur les tapis de mousse, prenant la pluie sous les marguerites.”
― Sophie Daull, Camille, mon envolée

“Les bons et les mauvais souvenirs ont en commun de rester gravés.”
― Angie Thomas, On the Come Up

“Le sens n’est pas très important. Ce qui l’est, c’est le récit caché au fond des mots. Maintenant, vous êtes en train d’essayer de le faire remonter. Votre cœur est en train de tenter de faire réapparaître des choses qui ont disparu.”
― Yōko Ogawa, Cristallisation secrète

“C’est étrange, se disait-il, que l’on aime les gens, qu’ils disparaissent, et que l’on continue à les aimer, mais dans sa tête, pour soi, sans le leur dire. Comme si le fait de ne plus être en contact n’enlevait rien à leur présence.”
― Pascal Morin, Comment trouver l'amour à cinquante ans quand on est parisienne (et autres questions capitales) -

“A tant d’années passées le souvenir des choses, bien précisément, c’est un effort. Ce que les gens ont dit c’est presque tourné des mensonges. Faut se méfier. C’est putain le passé, ça fond dans la rêvasserie. Il prend des petites mélodies en route qu’on lui demandait pas. Il vous revient tout maquillé de pleurs et de repentirs en vadrouillant. C’est pas sérieux.”
― Louis Ferdinand Celine, Guerre

“The memory of the dead is indeed a good remorse. (Le souvenir des morts - Est bien un bon remords)”
― Charles de Leusse, Le Sablier

“The soul is like pollen: we remember it. (L'âme est comme le pollen : - Elle fait souvenir d'elle.)”
― Charles de Leusse, Le Sablier

“She knew she was delaying the inevitable- trying to locate Agnete's address- but decided to make a list of things to buy first, looking for shops close to the hotel and purposefully ignoring her uncertain finances. She dunked a sopaipilla in her coffee and brushed powdered sugar from her lips, the plate of chile-flecked fried polenta, chorizo, and eggs already finished. It might not have been a vacation, but it felt like one. She was on her own, eating strange foods, planning to spend money she wasn't sure she had, and no one was paying the slightest bit of attention to her. She had fallen down the rabbit hole.
It was easiest to come up with ideas for Saisee, whose pride in her cooking shone in everything she concocted, tossing in a pinch of this and a smidgen of that. Alice had even watched her hold crushed spices in the palm of her hand and blow them gently over the pot. 'My momma taught me that. Best way to get flavor to every part of the pot.' For here there would be white posole and blue cornmeal, a collection of chile powders, and piloncillo, the little cones of unrefined Mexican sugars Alice imagined she might use to make caramelized custard.”
― Tracy Guzeman, The Gravity of Birds

“Non ci so proprio fare con le promesse" si disse, pensando a tutte quelle che aveva fatto in passato, a se stessa, agli altri, a suo marito. Pensò a quanto si era sentita invincibile nei confronti della vita, quando le aveva pronunciate. Invece era stata la vita a essere invincibile e a ripresentare, ogni volta, i conti lasciati in sospeso.
Con quanta umiltà andrebbero fatte le promesse, pensò, invece ne facciamo sempre tante e nel farle ci sopravvalutiamo. Pensiamo di essere pronti a tutto pur di mantenerle.
Poi con il tempo, tra le promesse, compare la parola "tranne" ed è questa che cambia le cose. Sono pronta a tutto tranne a star male, tranne a rinunciare, tranne a calpestare una parte di me, tranne a fare a meno di qualcosa che amo. Tranne, tranne, tranne... finché la promessa diventa un souvenir impolverato del passato.”
― Laura Zoe Pace, Nuvole di polvere e diamanti senza nome

“Elle dit elle-même qu’elle ne s’en souvient pas, et que cela de toute façon ne l’a pas empêchée de naître et ne l’empêchera pas de mourir.”
― Philippe Claudel, Brodeck

“C'était comme si cette bulle était consciente du caractère éphémère de son existence et qu'elle interprétait pour le monde les innombrables rêves et légendes qui habitaient ses souvenirs.”
― Liu Cixin, The Wandering Earth

“Il n'y pas de mort. Je peux fermer les yeux, j'aurai mon paradis dans les coeurs qui se souviendront.”
― Maurice Genevoix, Un Jour

“Voilà ! Bienvenue dans mon palais ! Comment trouvez-vous ? Etonnant, non ? Tout de même, vous réalisez ? Je suis le propriétaire du château du marquis de Sade et de celui de Giacomo Casanova, les deux plus grands prédateurs de femmes de l'histoire. Moi qui ne suis pas particulièrement attiré par les femmes, c'est un comble, non? Ah, les femmes ! Je les aime, les femmes ! J'ai passé ma vie à honorer leur beauté, à les accompagner à travers mes créations, à leur donner une plus grande place dans notre monde, à les aider à mieux exister dans notre société...”
― Gérard Chambre, Pierre Cardin - tellement de choses à ne pas dire

“Harriett est floue en automne. C'est la faute des feuilles mortes, ça fait glisser les souvenir.”
― Perrine Tripier, Les guerres précieuses

“Il y a des souvenirs qui nous tiennent à cœur et qu'on a envie de partager, c'est comme ça. L'espace d'un instant , cela nous donne l'impression qu'ils redeviennent réalité.”
― Laetitia Arnould, 25 Faubourg Des Étoiles

“Ce que l'on appelle : se recueillir, m'est une contrainte impossible; je ne comprends plus le mot : solitude; être seul en moi, c'est n'être plus personne; je suis peuplé.”
― André Gide, Les Nourritures terrestres: suivi de Les nouvelles nourritures