Ally Condie Quotes

Remembering. Forgetting. I'm not sure which is worse.

What made losing someone you loved bearable was not remembering but forgetting. Forgetting small things first... it's amazing how much you could forget, and everything you forgot made that person less alive inside you until you could finally endure it. After more time passed you could let yourself remember, even want to remember. But even then what you felt those first days could return and remind you the grief was still there, like old barbed wire embedded in a tree's heartwood.

You probably wouldn't remember. I probably couldn't forget.

You'll remember someone who broke your heart, and you'll think to yourself, 'Oh yes, I remember how that feels.' But you can't.

How easy it is to destroy the past and how difficult to forget it.

I have a hot memory, but I know I've forgotten many things, too, just squashed things in favor of survival.

I just didn't want to admit that he was dead.

Some things you just don't get over.

The bottom line is I'm writing to save the dead. I'm writing to save the people I have lost, some of whose bodies are still walking around.

Some of my memories will never return. They are lost - along with the crippling feeling of defeat and hopelessness. Not a tremendous price to pay.

Memory is the only friend of grief.

You see I usually find myself among strangers because I drift here and there trying to forget the sad things that happened to me.

Maybe that's how I learned to handle my deep hurt - by forgetting.

He didn't want to remember anymore. remembering only hurt him... everytime.

Memory is a wonderful thing if you don't have to deal with the past.

Remembering is only a new form of suffering.

Heart, we will forget him! You and I, to-night! You may forget the warmth he gave, I will forget the light. When you have done, pray tell me, That I my thoughts may dim; Haste! lest while you’re lagging, I may remember him!

In small letters, someone has written NEVER FORGET on one of the slats. I know it's supposed to be a pledge, but it feels like a curse. Don't we have to forget some of it? Don't we have to forget this feeling? If we don't, how will we live?

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her. Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Remembering is the most overrated thing. Forgetting is far superior.

I have a beautiful address book a friend gave me in 1966. I literally cannot open it again. Ever. It sits on the shelf with over a hundred names crossed out. What is there to say? There are no words. I'll never understand why it happened to us.

It takes a moment to make memories and a lifetime to forget them.

All I'd ever wanted was to forget. but even when I thought I had, pieces had kept emerging, like bits of wood floating up to the surface that only hint at the shipwreck below.

Jennifer had never liked the pain of remembering what had happened, but for Theo it was the pain that kept Laura alive in his memory. He was afraid that if it ever began to heal she would disappear.