Forgetting

"[M]y memory rests, but never forgets what I lost."

"Not the power to remember, but its very opposite, the power to forget, is a necessary condition for our existence."

"FORGETFULNESS, n. A gift of God bestowed upon debtors in compensation for their destitution of conscience."

"But my thoughts ran a wool-gathering; and I did like the countryman, who looked for his ass while he was mounted on his back."

"That frivolous young widow ought to have paid for the solace she declared so often she found in books. "I must read to forget." All very well, but she should not forget to pay for the means of forgetfulness. The waters of Lethe may be waters bought without money and without price, but my books ought to be paid for in cash."

"Death is a kind of forgetting. You see, each time a human cell replicates, it loses a little more DNA from the end of its chromosomes. Now, eventually what happens is, it forgets so much that it forgets its function, its ability to cope with trauma, to continue to reproduce. Okay? Whereas life; life has the ability to both retrieve and to act on memory. What makes the nanomeds so extraordinary and continuing our funding worthy, of course is the fact they are life... unbound. It's beautiful, but it's untenable. Part of life is death, is forgetting and unchecked, it's mutatious, it's monstrous. See, the nanomeds remember their instructions too well. Basically, to stay in balance and alive, we must forget as much as we remember."

"May your way of life not be forgotten, may your name be called on."

"The pyramids themselves, doting with age, have forgotten the names of their founders."

"I’m the best there is at what I do. At least the people still living after I’m done undoing would say that. Everyone calls me Wolverine. I don’t remember other names. In fact, I don’t remember much of anything."

"I appreciate everyone reaching out & checking on me. I suffered a pretty nasty concussion against the Bears a few weeks ago & don't remember up to 4 hours after the game. Scary situation but the Panthers have been incredible walking me through this process"

"ἔνθ᾽ αὖτ᾽ ἄλλ᾽ ἐνόησ᾽ Ἑλένη Διὸς ἐκγεγαυῖα: αὐτίκ᾽ ἄρ᾽ εἰς οἶνον βάλε φάρμακον, ἔνθεν ἔπινον, νηπενθές τ᾽ ἄχολόν τε, κακῶν ἐπίληθον ἁπάντων."

"If I should cease to think of you at all for a prescribed time, I should find I could keep it up indefinitely. [...] You know that what you ask is impossible [...] I'm capable of nothing with regard to you," he went on, "but just of being infernally in love with you. If one's strong one loves only the more strongly."

"When faced with an overwhelming and painful reality like COVID, forgetting can be useful—even, to a degree, healthy. It allows people to temporarily put aside their fear and distress, and focus on the pleasures and demands of everyday life, which restores a sense of control. That way, their losses do not define them, but instead become manageable. But consigning painful memories to the River Lethe also has clear drawbacks, especially as the months and years go by. Ignoring such experiences robs one of the opportunity to learn from them. In addition, negating painful memories and trying to proceed as if everything is normal contorts one’s emotional life and results in untoward effects."

"Es tan corto el amor y tan largo el olvido."

"You forget a thousand things every day, pal. Make sure this is one of 'em."

"She knew that ancient evils could be left behind. One could choose not to remember. One did not have to dig into the slime pits of old anger and old hate. Forgetting was possible."

"That’s the greatest evil in the universe—the entropic decay of organized information. Forgetfulness. We despise it."

"Unliving things have no passions, and no memory: mere matter is the amnesia of the universe."

"God of love, show us our place in this world as channels of your love for all the creatures of this earth, for not one of them is forgotten in your sight"."

"A man must get a thing before he can forget it."

"The wind blows out, the bubble dies; The spring entomb'd in autumn lies; The dew dries up; the star is shot; The flight is past—and man forgot."

"God of our fathers, known of old, Lord of our far-flung battle-line, Beneath whose awful Hand we hold Dominion over palm and pine— Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget—lest we forget!"

"The tumult and the shouting dies, The captains and the kings depart; Still stands thine ancient sacrifice, A humble and a contrite heart. Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet Lest we forget,—lest we forget."

"Forgotten? No, we never do forget: We let the years go; wash them clean with tears, Leave them to bleach out in the open day, Or lock them careful by, like dead friends' clothes, Till we shall dare unfold them without pain,— But we forget not, never can forget."

"Mistakes remember'd are not faults forgot."

"Intrantis medici facies tres esse videntur. Ægrotanti; hominis, Dæmonis, atque Dei. Cum primum accessit medicus dixitque salutem, En Dens aut custos angelus, æger ait."

"God and the Doctor we alike adore But only when in danger, not before; The danger o'er, both are alike requited, God is forgotten, and the Doctor slighted."

"Our God and soldier we alike adore, When at the brink of ruin, not before; After deliverance both alike requited, Our God forgotten, and our soldiers slighted."

"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning."

"We bury love, Forgetfulness grows over it like grass; That is a thing to weep for, not the dead."

"One day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came the waves and washed it away; Agayne I wrote it with a second hand, But came the tyde and made my paynes his prey."

"Etiam oblivisci quod scis interdum expedit."

"And have you been to Borderland? Its country lies on either hand Beyond the river I-forget. One crosses by a single stone So narrow one must pass alone, And all about its waters fret— The laughing river I-forget."

"Go, forget me—why should sorrow O'er that brow a shadow fling? Go, forget me—and to-morrow Brightly smile and sweetly sing. Smile—though I shall not be near thee; Sing—though I shall never hear thee."