#forgetfulness

The name of the author is the first to go followed obediently by the title, the plot, the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of, as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain, to a little fishing village where there are no phones. ↗

— Billy Collins

#obedience

Happiness: being able to forget or, to express in a more learned fashion. ↗

— Friedrich Nietzsche

#happiness #life

I never forget things. I just don't observe them in the first place. ↗

— Bauvard

#funny #humor #observation #funny

Sometimes, it is true, a sense of isolation enfolds me like a cold mist as I sit alone and wait at life’s shut gate. Beyond there is light, and music, and sweet companionship; but I may not enter. Fate, silent, pitiless, bars the way…Silence sits immense upon my soul. Then comes hope with a smile and whispers, ‘there is joy is self-forgetfulness.’ So I try to make the light in others’ eyes my sun, the music in others; ears my symphony, the smile on others’ lips my happiness. ↗

— Helen Keller

#gratitude #joy #nature #self-forgetfulness #suffering

There are two barriers that often prevent communication between the young and their elders. The first is middle-aged forgetfulness of the fact that they themselves are no longer young. The second is youthful ignorance of the fact that the middle aged are still alive. ↗

— Jessamyn West

#alive #barriers #between #communication #elders