"It is useful to remember that history is to the nation as memory is to the individual. As aÂ person deprived of memory becomes disorientated and lost, not knowing where they have been or where they are going , so a nation denied a conception of the past will be disabled in dealing with its present and its future."

--

Source : "Folly's Antidote" by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., www.nytimes.com. January 01, 2007.

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

#Memories Quotes #Past Quotes #Knowing Quotes

“The writer is the duelist who never fights at the stated hour, who gathers up an insult, like another curious object, a collector's item, spreads it out on his desk later, and then engages in a duel with it verbally. Some people call it weakness. I call it postponement. What is weakness in the man becomes a quality in the writer. For he preserves, collects what will explode later in his work. That is why the writer is the loneliest man in the world; because he lives, fights, dies, is reborn always alone; all his roles are played behind a curtain. In life he is an incongruous figure.”
“She wished she were as inconsequential as the ghosts in her dreams.”
“Yes, I'm often reminded of her, and in one of my array of pockets, I have kept her story to retell. It is one of the small legion I carry, each one extraordinary in its own right. Each one an attempt - an immense leap of an attempt - to prove to me that you, and your human existence, are worth it.”
“I was invited to play with the New York Knicks. I was never drafted, but I was invited to the rookie camp.”

Source : "Being Black and "Difficult" in Hollywood". Interview with Ishmael Reed, www.counterpunch.org. September 24, 2010.
“We have forgotten that our sovereign duty is to leave the world in a better condition than when we each entered it”
“Leaving England was a painful decision, and we still have some regrets about it. However, at that time, the research environment for theoretical chemistry was clearly better in the U.S.”
“Weâ€™re only here for a short while. And I think itâ€™s such a lucky accident, having been born, that weâ€™re almost obliged to pay attention.”
“It's complicated, being an American, Having the money and the bad conscience, both at the same time.”

Source : Louis Simpson (2003). “The Owner of the House: New Collected Poems, 1940-2001”, p.191, BOA Editions, Ltd.

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