"However great the power of time may be, yet it never entirely obliterates the remembrance and influences of the past; even though the mind may have long remained unoccupied by the emotions immediately produced by those events. With all its changes, it is time itself which has given that which may be regarded as true existence, and which may be justly said to be independent even of time."
January 1, 1970
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wilhelm_von_Humboldt