Forgotten Memories Quotes

“A very long time ago, Grandmother had wanted to tell about all the things they did, but no one had bothered to ask. And now she had lost the urge.”
― Tove Jansson, The Summer Book

“Every time the long-forgotten people of the past are remembered, they are born again!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“It was like trying to recall a forgotten dream—each time I felt close to remembering where we’d met, the memories slipped away.”
― Michelle Madow, Remembrance

“He felt a happiness stirring deep inside him, shining a light into recesses of his soul that had long been devoured by darkness.”
― Erik Tomblin, Riverside Blues

“If you keep your eyes so fixed on heaven that you never look at the earth, you will stumble into hell.”
― Austin O'Malley

“Happy be Thy world
The world forgetting by the forgotten world;
The failed attempts to remember the need to forget;

Naturally, Eventually, Gradually, Usually, Finally ; Thy Allies will accompany you and end this Abruptly.

For Thy, it may seem simple;

Oh Shameless Crook! Thy have done it before and will do it again and when thy does it -- seems that only the innocence weeps.”
― Ranjani Ramachandran

“You cannot forget someone you love,
You cannot forgive someone you still hate!”
― Alex Haditaghi

“There are so many objects that I find that I have forgotten about until they are in my hands again, and they remind me of times in my life I had otherwise forgotten, the way you will visit a place you think is new and then something, a sound or smell or some tiny detail, will make you realize it is familiar after all.”
― Lemony Snicket, Poison for Breakfast

“Treating Abuse Today (Tat), 3(4), pp. 26-33
Freyd: I see what you're saying but people in psychology don't have a uniform agreement on this issue of the depth of -- I guess the term that was used at the conference was -- "robust repression."

TAT: Well, Pamela, there's a whole lot of evidence that people dissociate traumatic things. What's interesting to me is how the concept of "dissociation" is side-stepped in favor of "repression." I don't think it's as much about repression as it is about traumatic amnesia and dissociation. That has been documented in a variety of trauma survivors. Army psychiatrists in the Second World War, for instance, documented that following battles, many soldiers had amnesia for the battles. Often, the memories wouldn't break through until much later when they were in psychotherapy.

Freyd: But I think I mentioned Dr. Loren Pankratz. He is a psychologist who was studying veterans for post-traumatic stress in a Veterans Administration Hospital in Portland. They found some people who were admitted to Veteran's hospitals for postrraumatic stress in Vietnam who didn't serve in Vietnam. They found at least one patient who was being treated who wasn't even a veteran. Without external validation, we just can't know --

TAT: -- Well, we have external validation in some of our cases.

Freyd: In this field you're going to find people who have all levels of belief, understanding, experience with the area of repression. As I said before it's not an area in which there's any kind of uniform agreement in the field. The full notion of repression has a meaning within a psychoanalytic framework and it's got a meaning to people in everyday use and everyday language. What there is evidence for is that any kind of memory is reconstructed and reinterpreted. It has not been shown to be anything else. Memories are reconstructed and reinterpreted from fragments. Some memories are true and some memories are confabulated and some are downright false.

TAT: It is certainly possible for in offender to dissociate a memory. It's possible that some of the people who call you could have done or witnessed some of the things they've been accused of -- maybe in an alcoholic black-out or in a dissociative state -- and truly not remember. I think that's very possible.

Freyd: I would say that virtually anything is possible. But when the stories include murdering babies and breeding babies and some of the rather bizarre things that come up, it's mighty puzzling.

TAT: I've treated adults with dissociative disorders who were both victimized and victimizers. I've seen previously repressed memories of my clients' earlier sexual offenses coming back to them in therapy. You guys seem to be saying, be skeptical if the person claims to have forgotten previously, especially if it is about something horrible. Should we be equally skeptical if someone says "I'm remembering that I perpetrated and I didn't remember before. It's been repressed for years and now it's surfacing because of therapy." I ask you, should we have the same degree of skepticism for this type of delayed-memory that you have for the other kind?

Freyd: Does that happen?

TAT: Oh, yes. A lot.”
― David L. Calof

“Nadia," she says, very softly. I lean forward, straining to hear. Her expression has changed, drawn, as if in pain. "She's gone," she whispers. "The bed is empty."
"Who, Mother?"
"Nadia," she says again. "Her book is wrong. It's not Nadia's book." I know Mother. But it was only ever the book that was wrong. Not the daughter. Never the daughter.”
― Sharon Cameron, The Forgetting

“Asha stared as Mari for a while, her face once again betraying no emotions. "When we were acolytes, newly come to the Mage Guild Hall on Ihris, Mage Alain once tried to catch me as I fell. He was punished for this." Her gaze went to Alain. "We talked. In the first days. Before such things were driven from us. He was...he could have been...someone..."
"A friend," Alain said.
"Friend." Asha seemed to be looking inward now, as if searching for memories lost in time. "What does this mean?"
Alain's voice took on more feeling. "It is someone who helps."
"Helps?" Asha suddenly inhaled strongly. "I remember. When all else was gone...Alain...helps...helped...me."
"We were taught to forget this," Alain said. "Master Mechanic Mari reminded me of what it meant. She has reminded me of many things. She must do something of great importance. Will you help me now, Mage Asha?"
Here gaze rested on Alain, then went back to Mari. "This Mechanic helps Mage Alain. I will help, too. I will not betray you to the Guild, Mage Alain.”
― Jack Campbell, The Hidden Masters of Marandur

“Today I bumped into you again. You seemed like that flower long forgotten in the old diary.”
― Avijeet Das

“Since her time in the necromancer’s clutches, she was still recovering lost memories from the quicksand of her mind. They’d drop like nuclear bombs, freezing her at the worst time as visuals which should’ve stayed forever buried bubbled to the surface.”
― Katherine McIntyre, Waking for Winter

“...perhaps there's a reason our memories are kept hazy and out of focus. Maybe their abstraction serves an an anaesthetic, a buffer protecting us from the agony of time and all that it steals and erases.”
― Blake Crouch, Recursion

“The house gulped in a big breath of fresh air, like some frantic drowning thing breaking the water's surface and gasping for life. It had sat unopened for so long, suffocating in the silence, it's memories blanketed by a thick layer of dust.”
― Rachel Autumn Deering, Husk

“- “Do You know what ghosts are, Stuey? I’ll tell you. They’re secrets haunting the memories of the living. So long as we carry their secrets, they refuse to leave. They wait.” “Wait for what?” “To be forgotten. My father has been gone for sixty years, but” — he tapped the side of his head — “he’s still here. He never left.”
― Pete Hautman, Otherwood

“Entscheide dich für mich und meine erloschenen Geschichten.”
― Mathias Énard, Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants

“What are dreams? Reminders of our imperfections, wishes, and sins? Or, perhaps they are simply memories long forgotten.”
― H.S. Crow, Lunora: A Book of Sand

“I don't want to follow the footsteps of someone I don't remember. That would be like chasing a ghost that doesn't want to be caught.”
― Kimberly Willis Holt, Keeper of the Night

“Some memories are far too painful to resuscitate, and so they remain floating somewhere in the depths of our hearts.”
― Cynthia Pelayo, Forgotten Sisters