Memory Failure Quotes

Men do not learn much from the lessons of history and that is the most important of all the lessons of history.

In relative youth, we assume we'll remember everything. Someone should urge the young to think otherwise.

I can't remember in 1980 who I voted for. I wish I could tell you.

It is not without good reason, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying.

I did know once, only I've sort of forgotten.

I honestly don't remember the book well enough to register any surprise about anything. I don't remember anything being shocking to me.

I have no memory for things I have learned, nor things I have read, nor things experienced or heard, neither for people nor events; I feel that I have experienced nothing, learned nothing, that I actually know less than the average schoolboy, and that what I do know is superficial, and that every second question is beyond me. I am incapable of thinking deliberately; my thoughts run into a wall. I can grasp the essence of things in isolation, but I am quite incapable of coherent, unbroken thinking. I can't even tell a story properly; in fact, I can scarcely talk.

We've outsourced our memories to digital devices, and the result is that we no longer trust our memories. We see every small forgotten thing as evidence that they're failing us.

I do remember, and then when I try to remember, I forget.

People lie because they don't remember clear what they saw. People lie because they can't help making a story better than it was the way it happened.

Human memory is short and terribly fickle.

I always have trouble remembering three things: faces, names, and - I can't remember what the third thing is.

My memory is so bad that many times I forget my own name.

I don't know a great deal about Alzheimer's - just what it does.

Even if we remember the past, odds are good we'll still repeat it.

As you get older; you've probably noticed that you tend to forget things. You'll be talking with somebody at a party, and you'll know that you know this person, but no matter how hard you try, you can't remember his or her name. This can be very embarassing, especially if he or she turns out to be your spouse.

You never know how much a man can't remember until he is called as a witness.

I can't really remember my first headline show.

There's a place in the brain for knowing what cannot be remembered.

My memory is quite good, except when I'm off stage.

Memory is a wonderfully useful tool, and without it judgement does its work with difficulty; it is entirely lacking in me.... Now,the more I distrust my memory, the more confused it becomes. It serves me better by chance encounter; I have to solicit it nonchalantly. For if I press it, it is stunned; and once it has begun to totter, the more I probe it, the more it gets mixed up and embarrassed. It serves me at its own time, not at mine.

If sentiment doesn't ultimately make fibbers of some people, their natural abominable memories almost certainly will.

Boy, you know, it's amazing how your brain can turn into a sieve, and you can literally forget episodes that you have shot.

All my life I've been terrible at remembering people's names. I once introduced a friend of mine as Martini. Her name was actually Olive.

Make notes—I’ve lost more material than I’ve ever written. Contrary to popular opinion, it’s not still up there in one’s brain. It’s in outer space and it ain’t coming back.