Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Memory
Far from our eyes th’ Enchanting Objects set,
Advantage by the friendly Distance get.
Alexis. A poem against Fruition. From Poems by Several Hands. Pub. 1685.
I do perceive that the old proverb be not alwaies trew, for I do finde that the absence of my Nath. doth breede in me the more continuall remembrance of him.
Anne, Lady Bacon—To Jane Lady Cornwallis. (1613).
Out of sighte, out of mynde.
Quoted as a saying by Nathaniel Bacon. In Private Correspondence of Lady Cornwallis. P. 19. Googe. Title of Eclog.
Tell me the tales that to me were so dear,
Long, long ago, long, long ago.
Thomas Haynes Bayly—Long, Long Ago.
Oh, I have roamed o’er many lands,
And many friends I’ve met;
Not one fair scene or kindly smile
Can this fond heart forget.
Thomas Haynes Bayly—O, Steer my Bark to Erin’s Isle.
Friends depart, and memory takes them
To her caverns, pure and deep.
Thomas Haynes Bayly—Teach Me to Forget.
Out of mind as soon as out of sight.
Lord Brooke—Sonnet. LVI.
The mother may forget the child
That smiles sae sweetly on her knee;
But I’ll remember thee, Glencairn,
And all that thou hast done for me!
Burns—Lament for Glencairn.
Yet how much less it were to gain,
Though thou hast left me free,
The loveliest things that still remain,
Than thus remember thee.
Byron—And Thou art Dead as Young and Fair.
To live in hearts we leave behind,
Is not to die.
Campbell—Hallowed Ground. St. 6.
When promise and patience are wearing thin,
When endurance is almost driven in,
When our angels stand in a waiting hush,
Remember the Marne and Ferdinand Foch.
Bliss Carman—The Man of the Marne.
Though sands be black and bitter black the sea,
Night lie before me and behind me night,
And God within far Heaven refuse to light
The consolation of the dawn for me,—
Between the shadowy burns of Heaven and Hell,
It is enough love leaves my soul to dwell
With memory.
Madison Cawein—The End of All.
Les souvenirs embellissent la vie, l’oubli seul la rend possible.
Remembrances embellish life but forgetfulness alone makes it possible.
Gen’l Cialdini—Written in an album.
Memoria est thesaurus omnium rerum e custos.
Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things.
Cicero—De Oratore. I. 5.
Vita enim mortuorum in memoria vivorum est posita.
The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.
Cicero—Philippicæ. IX. 5.
Oh, how cruelly sweet are the echoes that start
When Memory plays an old tune on the heart!
Eliza Cook—Journal. Vol. IV. Old Dobbin. St. 16.
What peaceful hours I once enjoy’d!
How sweet their memory still!
But they have left an aching void
The world can never fill.
Cowper—Walking with God.
Don’t you remember, sweet Alice, Ben Bolt?
Sweet Alice, whose hair was so brown;
Who wept with delight when you gave her a smile,
And trembl’d with fear at your frown!
Thomas Dunn English—Ben Bolt.
But woe to him, who left to moan,
Reviews the hours of brightness gone.
Euripides—Iphigenia in Taurus. L. 1,121. Trans. by Anstice.
Memory [is] like a purse,—if it be over-full that it cannot shut, all will drop out of it. Take heed of a gluttonous curiosity to feed on many things, lest the greediness of the appetite of thy memory spoil the digestion thereof.
Fuller—Holy and Profane States. Bk. III. Of Memory.
By every remove I only drag a greater length of chain.
Goldsmith—Citizen of the World. No. 3.
Remembrance wakes with all her busy train,
Swells at my breast, and turns the past to pain.
Goldsmith—Deserted Village. L. 81.
Where’er I roam, whatever realms to see,
My heart untravell’d fondly turns to thee;
Still to my brother turns, with ceaseless pain,
And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.
Goldsmith—Traveller. L. 7.
A place in thy memory, Dearest!
Is all that I claim:
To pause and look back when thou hearest
The sound of my name.
Gerald Griffin—A Place in Thy Memory, Dearest.
Fer from eze, fer from herte,
Quoth Hendyng.
Hendyng—Proverbs, MSS. (Circa 1320).
So may it be: that so dead Yesterday,
No sad-eyed ghost but generous and gay,
May serve you memories like almighty wine,
When you are old.
Henley—When You Are Old.
I remember, I remember,
The house where I was born,
The little window where the sun
Came peeping in at morn;
He never came a wink too soon,
Nor brought too long a day,
But now, I often wish the night
Had borne my breath away!
Hood—I Remember, I Remember.
Where is the heart that doth not keep,
Within its inmost core,
Some fond remembrance hidden deep,
Of days that are no more?
Ellen C. Howarth—’Tis but a Little Faded Flower.
And when he is out of sight, quickly also is he out of mind.
Thos. á Kempis—Imitation of Christ. Bk. I. Ch. XXIII.
Badness of memory every one complains of, but nobody of the want of judgment.
La Rochefoucauld—Reflections and Moral Maxims. No. 463.
Tho’ lost to sight to mem’ry dear
Thou ever wilt remain.
Geo. Linley—Though Lost to Sight. First line found as an axiom in Monthly Magazine, Jan., 1827. Horace F. Cutler published a poem with same refrain, calling himself “Ruthven Jenkyns,” crediting its publication in a fictitious magazine, Greenwich Mag. for Marines, 1707. (Hoax.) It appeared in Mrs. Mary Sherwood’s novel, The Nun. Same idea in Pope—Epistle to Robert, Earl of Oxford, and Earl Mortimer. “Though lost to sight to memory dear / The absent claim a sigh, the dead a tear.” Sir David Dundas offered 5 shillings during his life (1799–1877) to any one who could produce the origin of this first line. See Notes and Queries, Oct. 21, 1916. P. 336. Dem Augen fern dem Herzen ewig nah’. On a tomb in Dresden, near that of Von Weber’s. See Notes and Queries, March 27, 1909. P. 249.
I recollect a nurse called Ann,
Who carried me about the grass,
And one fine day a fine young man
Came up and kissed the pretty lass.
She did not make the least objection.
Thinks I, “Aha,
When I can talk I’ll tell Mama,”
And that’s my earliest recollection.
Fred. Locker-Lampson—A Terrible Infant.
The leaves of memory seemed to make
A mournful rustling in the dark.
Longfellow—The Fire of Drift-Wood.
The heart hath its own memory, like the mind,
And in it are enshrined
The precious keepsakes, into which is wrought
The giver’s loving thought.
Longfellow—From My Arm-Chair. St. 12.
This memory brightens o’er the past,
As when the sun concealed
Behind some cloud that near us hangs,
Shines on a distant field.
Longfellow—A Gleam of Sunshine.
There comes to me out of the Past
A voice, whose tones are sweet and wild,
Singing a song almost divine,
And with a tear in every line.
Longfellow—Tales of a Wayside Inn. Pt. III. Interlude before “The Mother’s Ghost.”
Nothing now is left
But a majestic memory.
Longfellow—Three Friends of Mine. L. 10.
Wakes the bitter memory
Of what he was, what is, and what must be
Worse.
Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. IV. L. 24.
Il se veoid par expérience, que les mémoires excellentes se joignent volontiers aux jugements débiles.
Experience teaches that a good memory is generally joined to a weak judgment.
Montaigne—Essays. I. 9.
To live with them is far less sweet
Than to remember thee!
Moore—I Saw Thy Form in Youthful Prime.
Oft in the stilly night
E’er slumber’s chain has bound me,
Fond memory brings the light
Of other days around me.
Moore—Oft in the Stilly Night.
When I remember all
The friends so link’d together,
I’ve seen around me fall,
Like leaves in wintry weather
I feel like one who treads alone
Some banquet hall deserted,
Whose lights are fled, whose garlands dead,
And all but he departed.
Moore—Oft in the Stilly Night.
And the tear that we shed, though in secret it rolls,
Shall long keep his memory green in our souls.
Moore—Oh, Breathe not his Name.
When time who steals our years away
Shall steal our pleasures too,
The mem’ry of the past will stay
And half our joys renew.
Moore—Song. From Juvenile Poems.
All to myself I think of you,
Think of the things we used to do,
Think of the things we used to say,
Think of each happy bygone day.
Sometimes I sigh, and sometimes I smile,
But I keep each olden, golden while
All to myself.
Wilbur D. Nesbit—All to Myself.
Many a man fails to become a thinker for the sole reason that his memory is too good.
Nietzsche—Maxims.
At cum longa dies sedavit vulnera mentis,
Intempestive qui fovet illa novat.
When time has assuaged the wounds of the mind, he who unseasonably reminds us of them, opens them afresh.
Ovid—Epistolæ Ex Ponto. IV. 11. 19.
Impensa monumenti supervacua est: memoria nostra durabit, si vita meruimus.
The erection of a monument is superfluous; the memory of us will last, if we have deserved it in our lives.
Pliny the Younger—Epistles. IX. 19.
I remember, I remember
How my childhood fleeted by,—
The mirth of its December,
And the warmth of its July.
Praed—I Remember, I Remember.
If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.
Psalms. CXXXVII. 6.
Tho’ lost to sight, within this filial breast
Hendrick still lives in all his might confest.
W. Rider, in the London Magazine, 1755. P. 589.
Hail, memory, hail! in thy exhaustless mine
From age to age unnumbered treasures shine!
Thought and her shadowy brood thy call obey,
And Place and Time are subject to thy sway!
Sam’l Rogers—Pleasures of Memory. Pt. II. L. 428.
I have a room whereinto no one enters
Save I myself alone:
There sits a blessed memory on a throne,
There my life centres.
Christina G. Rossetti—Memory. Pt. II.
I wept for memory.
Christina G. Rossetti—Song. She Sat and Sang Always.
Though varying wishes, hopes, and fears,
Fever’d the progress of these years,
Yet now, days, weeks, and months but seem
The recollection of a dream.
Scott—Marmion. Introduction to Canto IV.
Still so gently o’er me stealing,
Mem’ry will bring back the feeling,
Spite of all my grief revealing
That I love thee,—that I dearly love thee still.
Scribe—Opera of La Sonnambula.
Though yet of Hamlet, our dear brother’s death,
The memory be green.
Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 1.
Remember thee!
Yea, from the table of my memory
I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records.
Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 5. L. 97.
Die two months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there’s hope a great man’s memory may outlive his life half a year.
Hamlet. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 137.
Briefly thyself remember.
King Lear. Act IV. Sc. 6. L. 233.
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume.
Macbeth. Act I. Sc. 7. L. 65.
I cannot but remember such things were,
That were most precious to me.
Macbeth. Act IV. Sc. 3. L. 222.
If a man do not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he shall live no longer in monument than the bell rings, and the widow weeps.***An hour in clamour and a quarter in rheum.
Much Ado About Nothing. Act V. Sc. 2. L. 76.
I count myself in nothing else so happy
As in a soul rememb’ring my good friends;
And, as my fortune ripens with thy love,
It shall be still thy true love’s recompense.
Richard II. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 46.
How sharp the point of this remembrance is!
Tempest. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 137.
Looking on the lines
Of my boy’s face, my thoughts I did recoil
Twenty-three years; and saw myself unbreech’d,
In my green velvet coat, my dagger muzzled,
Lest it should bite its master, and so prove,
As ornaments oft do, too dangerous.
Winter’s Tale. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 153.
Thou comest as the memory of a dream,
Which now is sad because it hath been sweet.
Shelley—Prometheus Unbound. Act II. Sc. 1.
Heu quanta minus est cum reliquis versari quam tui meminisse.
Ah, how much less all living loves to me,
Than that one rapture of remembering thee.
The Latin is Shenstone’s Epitaph to the memory of his cousin Mary Dolman, on an ornamental Urn. The trans. is by Arthur J. Munby.
The Right Honorable gentleman is indebted to his memory for his jests and to his imagination for his facts.
R. B. Sheridan—Attributed to him in report of a Speech in Reply to Mr. Dundas. Not found in his works but the idea exists in loose sketches for a comedy.
Nobis meminisse relictum.
Left behind as a memory for us.
Statius—Silvæ. Bk. II. 1. 55.
In vain does Memory renew
The hours once tinged in transport’s dye:
The sad reverse soon starts to view
And turns the past to agony.
Mrs. Dugald Stewart—The Tear I Shed.
I shall remember while the light lives yet
And in the night time I shall not forget.
Swinburne—Erotion.
Facetiarum apud præpotentes in longum memoria est.
The powerful hold in deep remembrance an ill-timed pleasantry.
Tacitus—Annales. V. 2.
The sweet remembrance of the just
Shall flourish when he sleeps in dust.
Tate and Brady—Paraphrase of Psalm CXII. St. 6.
A land of promise, a land of memory,
A land of promise flowing with the milk
And honey of delicious memories!
Tennyson—The Lover’s Tale. L. 333.
Faciam, hujus loci, dieique, meique semper memineris.
I will make you always remember this place, this day, and me.
Terence—Eunuchus. V. 7. 31.
Memory, in widow’s weeds, with naked feet stands on a tombstone.
Aubrey De Vere—Widowhood.
Forsan et hæc olim meminisse juvabit.
Perhaps the remembrance of these things will prove a source of future pleasure.
Vergil—Æneid. I. 203.
Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo.
These who have ensured their remembrance by their deserts.
Vergil—Æneid. VI. 664.
As the dew to the blossom, the bud to the bee,
As the scent to the rose, are those memories to me.
Amelia B. Welby—Pulpit Eloquence.
Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,
Out of the mocking bird’s throat, the musical shuttle,
******
A reminiscence sing.
Walt Whitman—Sea-Drift.
Ah! memories of sweet summer eves,
Of moonlit wave and willowy way,
Of stars and flowers, and dewy leaves,
And smiles and tones more dear than they!
Whittier—Memories. St. 4.
And when the stream
Which overflowed the soul was passed away,
A consciousness remained that it had left,
Deposited upon the silent shore
Of memory, images and precious thoughts,
That shall not die, and cannot be destroyed.
Wordsworth—Excursion. Bk. VII.
The vapours linger round the Heights,
They melt, and soon must vanish;
One hour is theirs, nor more is mine,—
Sad thought, which I would banish,
But that I know, where’er I go,
Thy genuine image, Yarrow!
Will dwell with me,—to heighten joy,
And cheer my mind in sorrow.
Wordsworth—Yarrow Visited.