memories of remembering and forgetting

All from Jonathan Cott's on the sea of memory: a journey from forgetting to remembering

Part One: Forgetting

Yes, there were times when I forgot not only
who I was, but that I was, forgot to be.

• Samuel Beckett, Molloy

Chapter Two: On Wanting to Forget

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?

• William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Chapter Three: On Alzheimer's Disease

Just as the child loses, as he comes into the world,
his angelic memory, so the man, as he grows old,
loses his memory of this world.

• Bronson Alcott, quoted by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Chapter Four: On Memory Enhancement

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue.

• Billy Collins, "Forgetfulness"

Part Two: Remembering

Remember me.

• William Shakespeare, Hamlet (the ghost)

Chapter Seven: On Memory, Imagination, and the Soul

If you can't remember something,
imagine it.

• Agnes Varda

Chapter Eight: The Griot—Storyteller and Remembrancer of the African Tribe

Every man is a charabanc on which
all of his ancestors ride.

• Ralph Waldo Emerson

Chapter Ten: Remembrance in the Jewish Tradition

Remembrance is the secret of redemption.
Forgetfulness leads to exile.

• Baal Shem Tov

Chapter Eleven: Divine Remembrance in the Sufi Tradition

I was dead, then alive.
Weeping, then laughing.

The power of love came into me,
and I became fierce like a lion,
then tender like the evening star.

He said, "You'e not mad enough.
You don't belong in this house."

I went wild and had to be tied up.
He said, "Still not wild enough
to stay with us."

I broke through another layer
into joyfulness.

He said, "It is not enough."
I died.

• Rumi, as rendered by Coleman Barks

Part Three: Afterthoughts

When you awake
You will remember everything.

• Richard Manuel—Robbie Robinson, "When You Awake"

You can't take from me what I've danced.

• Mexican Proverb