Praise to memory

Quite a subject for me to tackle!
I've praised at least fifty subjects, and today I realize that memory isn't one of them.
First of all, I'll jump right in and reveal that the most famous quote about memory comes from Abraham Lincoln:
No man has memory enough to succeed in lying
"The shortest quote comes from Quintilian: 'The liar
liar must have a good memory".

Let's return to our everyday lives. How often do we hear: I can't remember, I've lost my memory, what kind of memory do you have? All of which is to say that our memory fails us just when we need it.

Basically, memory is the function by which the mind retains and recalls previously acquired knowledge. It's also the ability to remember, even if we sometimes have a memory lapse. When we say we know something by heart, it's from memory. Every incident is engraved in our memory.

The job of this memory is to record, store and retrieve information. What is worthy of being stored in the memory becomes memorable. Many researchers have tried to discover the material support of memory phenomena, but that's not my point.

 

We must recognize that the highest form of memory is social memory. There is also individual memory and artistic memory. The latter can manifest itself in dreams, fantasies, delirium or neurosis. As for the heart, Hans Christian Anderson had this to say:
"Recognition is the memory of the heart".

We call 'amnesia' a memory disease. It's the inability to recognize a perceived object. It's a forgetfulness of motor behavior. As for forgetting, Amélie Nothomb, whom I've just discovered, says: "Forgetting is a gigantic ocean on which a single ship sails, and that ship is memory.

Victor Hugo had a charming phrase: "Children have short memories, but they remember quickly.

Many great men long before me have studied this subject and given us their opinions. I'll mention a few of them to give an image to this writing. Take Paulo Coelho: 'Take with you
in your memory, for the rest of your life, the positive things that have arisen instead of the difficulties'. A warning comes from a Spanish proverb: "Memory,
it often lets you down just when you need it most".

Ingrid Bergman tells us that happiness means having good health and a bad memory. And then I come across my great friend Jean D'Ormesson, who says something with which I very much agree: "There is something stronger than death, which is the presence of the absent in the memory of the living".  How powerful!

Before I finish, two other authors had something to say about memory, and I can't forget them. They are Churchill and Nietzsche. The former said something I do all the time, and the proof is in this piece of writing: "It is a good thing to read books of quotations, for quotations
The second is stricter: "The future belongs to he who has the greatest memory.

Basically, memory is the function by which the mind retains and recalls previously acquired knowledge. It's also the ability to remember, even if we sometimes have a memory lapse. When we say we know something by heart, it's from memory. Every incident is engraved in our memory.

We sometimes talk about good and bad memories, and Ingrid Bergman tells us that happiness means having good health and a bad memory. And then I discover my great friend Jean D'Ormesson, who says something with which I agree wholeheartedly: "There is something stronger than death, which is the presence of the absent in the memory of the living".  How powerful!