Memory Burden Quotes

You know that old phrase ‘Those who don’t remember the past are condemned to repeat it’? Well, I think those who remember the past are even worse off.

If we should remember everything we would be as worse off as if we remembered nothing.

You remember too much," my mother said to me recently. "Why hold onto all that?" And I said, "where can I put it down?

What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one's faculties, mental and physical, but the burden of one's memories.

History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.

All that we were has led us to where we are, but tells us little of where we’re going. Memories are a weight you can never shrug off.

Why do people have memories? It would be easier to die - anything to stop remembering.

It is nature's kindness that we do not remember past births. Life would be a burden if we carried such a tremendous load of memories.

The obligation to remember is inscribed on every Holocaust memorial, but even the words 'Never Forget' become irksome eventually.

Was memory always as much of a burden as it could sometimes be a blessing.

The camera relieves us of the burden of memory.

No, I said. I didn't remember that. There was so much to remember, sometimes the best thing was to forget.

I understood that there was no escaping the memories, that I was surround by them. (p.30)

[W]e must never allow the future to collapse under the burden of memory.

To remember everything is a form of madness.

It is painful to be consciously of two worlds. The Wandering Jew in me seeks forgetfulness. I am not afraid to live on and on, if only I do not have to remember too much. A long past vividly remembered is like a heavy garment that clings to your limbs when you would run.

It is notorious that the memory strengthens as you lay burdens upon it, and becomes trustworthy as you trust it.