#forgetting

I never heard of an old man forgetting where he had buried his money! Old people remember what interests them: the dates fixed for their lawsuits, and the names of their debtors and creditors. ↗

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

#creditors #dates #debtors #fixed #forgetting

We deliberately forget because forgetting is a blessing. On both an emotional level and a spiritual level, forgetting is a natural part of the human experience and a natural function of the human brain. It is a feature, not a bug, one that saves us from being owned by our memories. Can a world that never forgets be a world that truly forgives? ↗

— Tim Challies

#forgiveness #experience

The prerequisite of originality is the art of forgetting, at the proper moment, what we know. ↗

— Arthur Koestler

#forgetting #know #moment #originality #prerequisite

Life has a way of going in circles. Ideally, it would be a straight path forward––we'd always know where we were going, we'd always be able to move on and leave everything else behind. There would be nothing but the present and the future. Instead, we always find ourselves where we started. When we try to move ahead, we end up taking a step back. We carry everything with us, the weight exhausting us until we want to collapse and give up. We forget things we try to remember. We remember things we'd rather forget. The most frightening thing about memory is that it leaves no choice. It has mastered an incomprehensible art of forgetting. It erases, it smudges, it fills in blank spaces with details that don't exist. But however we remember it––or choose to remember it––the past is the foundation that holds our lives in place. Without its support, we'd have nothing for guidance. We spend so much time focused on what lies ahead, when what has fallen behind is just as important. What defines us isn't where we're going, but where we've been. Although there are places and people we will never see again, and although we move on and let them go, they remain a part of who we are. There are things that will never change, things we will carry along with us always. But as we venture into the murky future, we must find our strength by learning to leave things behind. ↗

— Brigid Gorry-Hines

#forgetting #future #give-up #life #strength

She's forgetting,' Ellen said to Jack, plumping herself down on a chair. 'All of her life is leaking out of her. Soon there will be nothing left. ↗

— Isobelle Carmody

#life #life

There is only one thing more harmful to society than an elected official forgetting the promises he made in order to get elected; that's when he doesn't forget them. ↗

— John McCarthy

#forget #forgetting #get #harmful #made

I keep forgetting I'm speaking in an American accent sometimes. The dangerous thing is that you end up forgetting what your real accent is after a while! It's really strange; I've never done a job in an American accent before. ↗

— Robert Pattinson

#after #american #american accent #before #dangerous

The object of preaching is to constantly remind mankind of what they keep forgetting; not to supply the intellect, but to fortify the feebleness of human resolutions. ↗

— Sydney Smith

#feebleness #forgetting #fortify #human #intellect

We are turning against boys and forgetting a simple truth: that the energy, competitiveness, and corporal daring of normal, decent males is responsible for much of what is right in the world. ↗

— Christina Hoff Sommers

#competitiveness #corporal #daring #decent #energy

The best way of forgetting how you think you feel is to concentrate on what you know you know. ↗

— Mary Stewart

#best way #concentrate #feel #forgetting #how