80 Memorable Quotes On Memories

Memories are the threads that weave the fabric of our lives, capturing moments that shape us, inspire us, and sometimes haunt us. They remind us of who we were, where we've been, and can even guide us toward who we wish to become. Some memories are as vivid as the day they were formed, while others linger like whispers from a distant past. In honoring these powerful experiences, we've curated a collection of the top 80 memorable quotes on memories. Each quote serves as a reflection on the beauty and complexity of our personal histories, offering insights and evoking emotions that resonate deeply. Dive in, and let these words transport you back to the moments that truly matter.

1. “It is...difficult to describe someone, since memories are by their nature fragmented, isolated, and arbitrary as glimpses one has at night through lighted windows.[E]very memory is turned over and over again, every word, however chance, written in the heart in the hope that memory will fulfill itself, and become flesh, and that the wanderers will find a way home, and the perished, whose lack we always feel, will step through the door finally and stroke our hair with dreaming, habitual fondness, not having meant to keep us waiting long.” - Marilynne Robinson

2. “Sometimes things become possible if we want them bad enough.” - T.S. Eliot

3. “The sight of a child…will arouse certain longings in adult, civilized persons — longings which relate to the unfulfilled desires and needs of those parts of the personality which have been blotted out of the total picture in favor of the adapted persona.” - Carl Gustav Jung

4. “Oh, but once my memories had pulsed with the blood-heat of life. In desperation, I forced myself to recall that once, I had walked with kings and conversed in languages never heard in this land. Once I had stood at the prow of a Sea Wolf ship and sailed oceans unknown to seamen here. I had ridden horses through desert lands, and dined on exotic foods in Arab tents. I had roamed Constantinople’s fabled streets, and bowed before the Holy Roman Emperor’s throne. I had been a slave, a spy, a sailor. Advisor and confidant of lords, I had served Arabs, Byzantines, and barbarians. I had worn captive’s rags, and the silken robes of a Sarazen prince. Once I had held a jeweled knife and taken a life with my own hand. Yes, and once I had held a loving woman in my arms and kissed her warm and willing lips...Death would have been far, far better than the gnawing, aching emptiness that was now my life.” - Stephen R. Lawhead

5. “He thought each memory recalled must do some violence to its origins. As in a party game. Say the words and pass it on. So be sparing. What you alter in the remembering has yet a reality, known or not.” - Cormac McCarthy

6. “For they might be parted for hundreds of years, she and Peter; she never wrote a letter and his were dry sticks; but suddenly it would come over her, If he were with me now what would he say? --some days, some sights bringing him back to her calmly, without the old bitterness; which perhaps was the reward of having cared for people; they came back in the middle of St. James's Park on a fine morning--indeed they did.” - Virginia Woolf

7. “I take you and pile high the memories. Death will break her claws on some I keep.” - Carl Sandburg

8. “But every memory is turned over and over again, every word, however chance, written in the heart in the hope that memory will fulfill itself, and become flesh, and that the wanderers will find a way home, and the perished, whose lack we always feel, will step through the door finally and stroke our hair with dreaming, habitual fondness, not having meant to keep us waiting long.” - Marilynne Robinson

9. “The world is shaped by two things — stories told and the memories they leave behind.” - Vera Nazarian

10. “Sharing tales of those we've lost is how we keep from really losing them.” - Mitch Albom

11. “My father spoke with his hands. He was deaf. His voice was in his hands. And his hands contained his memories.” - Myron Uhlberg

12. “The hardest thing about the road not taken is that you never know where it might have led.” - Lisa Wingate

13. “Following her instructions, I joined her in the chopping and mixing. The magical smell of pickling spices wound around us and it wasn't long before we were in another world. I was suddenly immersed in the hand-written recipes Mother resurrected from the back of the Hoosier cabinet--in the cheesecloth filled with mustard seed and pungent dill. As we followed the recipes her mother had followed and her mother before that, we talked--as the afternoon wore on I was listening to preserve the stories in my mind. 'I can remember watching my grandmother and mother rushing around this same old kitchen, putting up all kinds of vegetables--their own hand-sown, hand-picked crops--for the winter. My grandmother would tell her stories about growing up right here, on this piece of land--some were hilarious and some were tragic.' Pots still steamed on the stove, but Mother's attention seemed directed backwards as she began to speak about the past. She spoke with a slow cadence, a rhythm punctuated (or maybe inspired) by the natural symphony around us.” - Leslie Goetsch

14. “Nebylo tu nic pořádného k snědku, bylo to jenom velké akvárium, jehož stěny tvořily místo skleněných tabulí ze dvou stran břehy, dole písek, a nahoře nebe. A kolem dokola kvetly pomněnky a říkali vzpomínej.” - Ota Pavel

15. “I know in my life there have been breaches, but I also know that I am very good at blocking out the memories that serve me no purpose.” - Carrie Ryan

16. “Sometimes," he sighed, "I think the things I remember are more real than the things I see. ” - Arthur Golden

17. “Sitting on the floor, I'd replay the past in my head. Funny, that's all I did, day after day after day for half a year, and I never tired of it. What I'd been through seemed so vast, with so many facets. Vast, but real, very real, which was why the experience persisted in towering before me, like a monument lit up at night. And the thing was, it was a monument to me.” - Haruki Murakami

18. “Books are like flypaper, memories cling to the printed pages better than anything else.” - Cornelia Funke

19. “Strange, what brings these past things so vividly back to us, sometimes!” - Harriet Beecher Stowe

20. “You will remember this when all else fades, this moment, here, together, by this well. There will be certain days, and certain nights, you’ll feel my presence near you, hear my voice. You’ll think you have imagined it and yet, inside you, you will catch an answering cry. On April evenings, when the rain has ceased, your heart will shake, you’ll weep for nothing, pine for what’s not there. For you, this life will never be enough, there will forever be an emptiness, where once the god was all in all in you.” - John Banville

21. “Memories are bullets. Some whiz by and only spook you. Others tear you open and leave you in pieces.” - Richard Kadrey

22. “They waited awhile before lighting the candles; the gloom allowed the past to slip cozily into the present. But the memories were of a time that was gone and didn't overshadow the present. But the memories were vivid, and they made the freinds feel both young and old...When Chrsitanne finally lit the candles and they saw one another clearly again, she was happy to see in the old faces of the others the young faces they had come across in their memories. we store our youth wihtin us, we can go back to it and find ourselves in it, but it is past--melancholy filled their hearsts, and sympahty, for one another and for themsleves.” - Bernhard Schlink

23. “Treacherous people do not last only memories of their treason last.So will it last with emotions mixed, of love and hate for treacherous ones.” - Amit Abraham

24. “It is interesting how one word can spark memories that one believes she has buried beyond recognition.” - Mandy Nachampassack-Maloney

25. “I remember when your name was just another name that rolled without thought off my tongue.Now, I can’t look at your name without an abundance of sentiment attached to each letter.Your name, which I played with so carelessly, so easily, has somehow become sacred to my lips.A name I won’t throw around lightheartedly or repeat without deep thought.And if ever I speak of you, I use the English language to describe who you were to me. You are nameless, because those letters grouped together in that familiar form….. carries too much meaning for my capricious heart.” - Jamie Weise

26. “... I believe in some sense much akin to the belief of faith, that I noticed, felt, or underwent what I describe—but it may be that the only reason childhood memories act on us so strongly is that, being the most remote we possess, they are the worst remembered and so offer the least resistance to that process by which we mold them nearer and nearer to an ideal which is fundamentally artistic, or at least nonfactual; so it may be that some of these events I describe never occurred at all, but only should have, and that others had not the shades and flavors—for example, of jealousy or antiquity or shame—that I have later unconsciously chosen to give them...” - Gene Wolfe

27. “I am starting to think that maybe memories are like this dessert. I eat it, and it becomes a part of me, whether I remember it later or not.” - Erica Bauermeister

28. “Even if she be not harmed, her heart may fail her in so much and so many horrors; and hereafter she may suffer--both in waking, from her nerves, and in sleep, from her dreams.” - Bram Stoker

29. “When you are joyful, when you say yes to life and have fun and project positivity all around you, you become a sun in the center of every constellation, and people want to be near you.” - Shannon L. Alder

30. “We humans are different--our brains are built not to fix memories in stone but rather to transform them. Our recollections change in their retelling.” - Mira Bartok

31. “Best memories never hurt, with good memories an individual can pass his whole life without depending on others...” - Ritesh Shrivastav

32. “Rich dreams now which he was loathe to wake from. Things no longer known in the world. The cold drove him forth to mend the fire. Memory of her crossing the lawn toward the house in the early morning in a thin rose gown that clung to her breasts. He thought each memory recalled must do some violence to its origins. As in a party game. Say the words and pass it on. So be sparing. What you alter in the remembering has yet a reality, known or not.” - Cormac McCarthy

33. “For me, Mama's cabinet had been full of mysteries and secrets to be puzzled out, like an adventure. For them it had been full of memories. And I had broken all of them.” - Stephanie Burgis

34. “Some memories are presents that I'm unable to unwrap over and over.” - Brian James

35. “When you're young your reality is accepted by most. When you're older, your reality changes and that seems to upset most people.” - Solange nicole

36. “How memories lie to us. How time coats the ordinary with gold. How it breaks the heart to go back and attempt to re-live them. How crushed we are when we discover that the gold was merely gold-plating thinly coated over lead, chalk and peeling paint.” - Henry Rollins

37. “But that's how memory works," Bitterblue said quietly. "Things disappear without your permission, then come back again without your permission." And sometimes they came back incomplete and warped.” - Kristin Cashore

38. “Suffering is part of life,' she said. 'All the parts of life are jumbled up together; you can't separate out just the one thing.' She parred his hand again, kindly. 'I could let you kill me now, lovely man, and have peace and good dreams forever. But who knows what I get instead, if I stay? Maybe time to see a new grandchild. Maybe a good joke that sets me laughing for days. Maybe another handsome young fellow flirting with me.' She grinned toothlessly, then let loose another horrible, racking cough. Ehiru steadies her with shaking hands. 'I want every moment of my life, pretty man, the painful and the sweet alike. Until the very end. If these are all the memories I get for eternity, I want to take as many of them with me as I can.” - N. K. Jemisin

39. “Aryami Bose's home had been closed up for years, inhabited only by books and paintings, but the spectre of thousands of memories imprisoned between its walls still permeated the house.” - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

40. “Sometimes I would see them not as mementos of the blissful hours but as the tangible precious debris of the storm raging in my soul.” - Orhan Pamuk

41. “Who are we without our memories?” - Marta Acosta

42. “...everything is gone except traces of you inside me - and the years like the wind are sweeping those away ...” - John Geddes

43. “The power of things inheres in the memories they gather up inside them, and also in the vicissitudes of our imagination, and our memory — of this there is no doubt.” - Orhan Pamuk

44. “The man went to the controls, looking up at me, flaring his nostrils to my actions. His voice was like a voice under water. “We’ll see what becomes of your rebellious nature when you lose your memories, Rei Lin.” He punched a few buttons and turned the knob on the wall to the right.” - Millicent Ashby

45. “And here in this room, I re-experience the memories again and again it is how wisdom comes and how we shape our future.” - Lois Lowry

46. “Unhappiness is caused when we cannot let go of our memories.” - Jed Rubenfeld

47. “He noticed that she threw away the crumbled bus ticket on the street as soon as she got down. He picked it up and put it in his pocket along with his own a memorabilia of their first date together, just like a strand of her hair he would find later on his shirt and the broken pen cap that she would go on to search in the laboratory and so many other such small things which he would collect.” - Faraaz Kazi

48. “It was like watching a movie being played on the blank screen of his mind; the only difference was that he did not get bored, no matter how many times he watched it.” - Faraaz Kazi

49. “Good memories invite heaven.” - Toba Beta

50. “Yes. I remember.”His voice had deepened. I remember. Mina did, too, every conversation they’d had over breakfast, and it made her heart ache. Such a strange thing... She suddenly couldn’t laugh anymore.” - Meljean Brook

51. “A deceitful man will go as far as to trample all over a woman’s reputation and spirit, in order to prove to his ex-love that he was faithful. The irony, is he is still in love with his ex and the new woman in his life doesn’t even realize it.” - Shannon L. Alder

52. “[M]ost people go through life a wee bit disappointed in themselves. I think we all keep a memory of a moment when we missed someone or something, when we could have gone down another path, a happier or better or just a different path. Just because they're in the past doesn't mean you can't treasure the possibilities ... maybe we put down a marker for another time. And now's the time. Now we can do whatever we want to do.” - James Robertson

53. “But she knew that no matter what beauty lay behind, it must remain there. No one could go forward with a load of aching memories.” - Margaret Mitchell

54. “The most beautiful moments always seemed to accelerate and slip beyond one’s grasp just when you want to hold onto them for as long as possible.” - E.A. Bucchianeri

55. “In theory momentos serve to bring back the moment. In fact they serve only to make clear how inadequately I appreciated the moment when it was here. How inadequately I appreciated the moment when it was here is something else I could never afford to see.” - Joan Didion

56. “مصفوفةُ حقائبي على رفوف الذاكرة .” - أمل دنقل

57. “كيف نحفظ دون أن نفهم ونحن أطفال لا نفرق بين الحلال والحرام ولا نميز بين الصواب والخطأ، فالاستفسار يعني المعارضة بالنسبة لهم مما يؤدي للقمع والضرب دون رحمة، وعواقب طويلة الأجل، لا زالت تفاصيل الطفولة عالقة بذاكرتي.” - سهام محمد

58. “It's just this: that there are places we all come from-deep-rooty-common places- that makes us who we are. And we disdain them or treat them lightly at our peril. We turn our backs on them at the risk of self-contempt. There is a sense in which we need to go home again-and can go home again. Not to recover home, no. But to sanctify memory.” - Robert Fulghum

59. “There are edges around the black and every now and then a flash of color streaks out of the gray. But I can never really grasp any of the slivers of memories that emerge.” - Katie McGarry

60. “And I never started to plow in my lifeThat some one did not stop in the roadAnd take me away to a dance or picnic. I ended up with forty acres; I ended up with a broken fiddle—And a broken laugh, and a thousand memories,And not a single regret.” - Edgar Lee Masters

61. “I know. You can be fine, and then,out of nowhere,a memory blindsides you.” - Lisa Schroeder

62. “Toy is talking and this is why I love her. She can go on about herself ceaselessly and like the scratching of a branch against the window at night, the steady insistence of it is comforting. She has stories without beginnings, stories that trail off, stories that crisscross and contradict and dead end.Toy is the star of her stories. Events orbit her like a constellation.” - Erica Lorraine Scheidt

63. “...we live in the same city but don't see the same things - you see buildings and I see memories...” - John Geddes

64. “My mind has cleared a little; I’ve regained some instincts and associations, echoes of the Living world if not actual memories. Those I still have to steal.” - Isaac Marion

65. “I couldn't believe I let him see me like this, unable to fend for myself. I fumed in disgust at my vulnerability. I didn't want Evan to think I needed protecting. I pulled back my torment and let the numb blanket envelop me, pushing away the stirred memories, the noise of the crowd, and the trembling that still lay beneath the surface. I stared at the flames licking at the darkness and everything was lost as I sank deeper into nothingness.” - Rebecca Donovan

66. “...when I was a kid, Toronto streets were deserted and quiet on Sundays, except for the sound of church bells I stood on the sidewalk one December listening to the Christmas bells - I've never forgotten that moment...” - John Geddes

67. “I had no eyelashes left. So when I cried, the tears rolled down, unabated to my mouth. My saliva tasted those days, like a salt lake. Or so he said.'('Left from Dhakeshwari')” - Kunal Sen

68. “The past may not hurt you, but it won't challenge you, either.” - Brad Meltzer

69. “In our lives are special moments that live as their own, the rest is movement with the passage of time.” - Donna Lynn Hope

70. “It was one of those rare times when remembering the dead was more inmportant than tending to the needs of the living.” - Dean Koontz

71. “It is now recognised that dissociation is a way of forgetting, for a time. The mind siphons off the bad memories into a separate part, and reclaiming those hidden-away memories us a complex process. So, when the memories resurface it does not feel as though they belong to you, it feels alien, more as if someone had told them to you, or you had seen the images in a film.” - Carolyn Bramhall

72. “Memories, real and irreplaceable, all of them. The happy ones, the bitter ones, the terrified and the poignant.” - A.G. Howard

73. “Tessa had lain down beside him and slid her arm beneath his head, and put her head on his chest,listening to the ever-weakening beat of his heart. And in the shadows they'd whispered, reminding each other of the stories only they knew. Of the girl who had hit over the head with a water jug the boy who had come to rescue her, and how he had fallen in love with her in that instant. Of a ballroom and a balcony and the moon sailing like a ship untethered through the sky. Of the flutter of the wings of the clockwork Angel. Of holy water and blood.” - Cassandra Clare

74. “I know you’re just a rag doll now, sewn together with memories that we might have had. I know you’re just the dream inside of a dream And don’t worry, I know I don’t know you, anymore.” - pleasefindthis

75. “Moments fly, memories remain; and then memories fly, only memoirs remain and finally memoirs disappear, nothing remains!” - Mehmet Murat ildan

76. “I answer the heroic question, 'Death, where is thy sting?' with 'It is in my heart and mind and memories.” - Maya Angelou

77. “It is as if people refused to leave their dead alone, forced them back into the light, made them keep their composure even in death.” - Bernhard Schlink

78. “Have you really not noticed, then, that here of all places, in this private, personal solitude that surrounds me, I have turned to you? All the memories of my youth speak to me as I walk, just as the sea shells crunch under my feet on the beach. The crash of every wave awakens far-distant reverberations within me... I hear the rumble of bygone days, and in my mind the whole endless series of old passions surges forward like the billows. I remember my spasms, my sorrows, gusts of desire that whistled like wind in the rigging, and vast vague longings that swirled in the dark like a flock of wild gulls in a stormcloud... On whom should I lean, if not on you? My weary mind turns for refreshment to the thought of you as a dusty traveler might sink onto a soft and grassy bank...” - Gustave Flaubert

79. “To have memories, happy or sorrowful, is a blessing, for it shows we have lived our lives without reservation.” - Tan Twan Eng

80. “There comes a time in your life when you have to choose to turn the page, write another book or simply close it.” - Shannon L. Alder