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Nostalgia Quotes

Browse 1745 quotes about Nostalgia.

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Nostalgia Quotes

“In the history of humanity there are no civilizations or cultures which fail to manifest, in one or a thousand ways, this need for an absolute that is called heaven, freedom, a miracle, a lost paradise to be regained, peace, the going beyond History... There is no religion in which everyday life is not considered a prison; there is no philosophy or ideology that does not think that we live in alienation.... Humanity has always had a nostalgia for the freedom that is only beauty, that is only real; life, plenitude, light.”

ThinkingWayNeedsDoeRealPhilosophyLightLife IsHumanityCultureLostHeavenFailingCivilizationThousandMiracleAbsolutesPrisonEverydayNostalgiaReal LifeIdeologyParadiseManifestEveryday LifeAlienationPlenitude
Author:Eugene Ionesco
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“Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia. (...) You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.”

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Book:Looking for Alaska
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“Nostalgia is a necessary thing, I believe, and a way for all of us to find peace in that which we have accomplished, or even failed to accomplish. At the same time, if nostalgia precipitates actions to return to that fabled, rosy-painted time, particularly in one who believes his life to be a failure, then it is an empty thing, doomed to produce nothing but frustration and an even greater sense of failure.”

IfsWayBelieveActionI BelievePeaceGreaterProduceReturnEmptyAccomplishNostalgiaAccomplishedFrustrationDoomedFinding PeaceRosyNecessary Things
Book:Streams of Silver: The Legend of Drizzt
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“Did she ever feel nostalgia for any of her girlhood dreams? But life was made up of a succession of dreams, some few to be realized, most to be set aside as time went on, one or two to persist for a lifetime. It was knowing when to abandon a dream, perhaps, that mattered and distinguished the successful people in life from the sad, embittered persons who never moved on from the first of life's great disappointments. Or from the airy dreamers who never really lived life at all.”

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Book:Simply Perfect
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“When I remember that dizzy summer, that dull, stupid, lovely, dire summer, it seems that in those days I ate my lunches, smelled another's skin, noticed a shade of yellow, even simply sat, with greater lust and hopefulness - and that I lusted with greater faith, hoped with greater abandon. The people I loved were celebrities, surrounded by rumor and fanfare; the places I sat with them, movie lots and monuments. No doubt all of this is not true remembrance but the ruinous work of nostalgia, which obliterates the past, and no doubt, as usual, I have exaggerated everything.”

PeopleSeemsPastRememberDoubtGreaterStupidSummerSkinsNostalgiaLovelyLustSatNo DoubtDullAbandonShadeLunchYellowUsualRemembranceRumorMonumentExaggeratedDizzyHopefulnessFanfare
Author:Michael Chabon
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“It is a curious emotion, this certain homesickness I have in mind. With Americans, it is a national trait, as native to us as the roller-coaster or the jukebox. It is no simple longing for the home town or country of our birth. The emotion is Janus-faced: we are torn between a nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known.”

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Book:The mortgaged heart
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“I sip my coffee. I look at the mountain, which is still doing its tricks, as you look at a still-beautiful face belonging to a person who was once your lover in another country years ago: with fond nostalgia, and recognition, but no real feelings save a secret astonishment that you are now strangers. Thanks. For the memories. It is ironic that the one thing that all religions recognize as separating us from our creator--our very self-consciousness--is also the one thing that divides us from our fellow creatures. It was a bitter birthday present from evolution, cutting us off at both ends.”

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Book:PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK
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“What I notice is that every adult or child I give a new set of Crayolas to goes a little funny. The kids smile, get a glazed look on their faces, pour the crayons out, and just look at them for a while....The adults always get the most wonderful kind of sheepish smile on their faces--a mixture of delight and nostalgia and silliness. And they immediately start telling you about all their experiences with Crayolas.”

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Author:Robert Fulghum
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“Murray said, ´I don´t trust anybody´s nostalgia but my own. Nostalgia is a product of dissatisfaction and rage. It´s a settling of grievances between the present and the past. The more powerful the nostalgia, the closer you come to violence. War is the form nostalgia takes when men are hard-pressed to say something good about their country.´”

MenSaidWarCountryHardPastFormMy OwnPowerfulViolenceProductsRageNostalgiaSettlingDon't TrustDissatisfactionGrievance
Book:White Noise
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“Perhaps a creature of so much ingenuity and deep memory is almost bound to grow alienated from his world, his fellows, and the objects around him. He suffers from a nostalgia for which there is no remedy upon earth except as it is to be found in the enlightenment of the spirit--some ability to have a perceptive rather than an exploitive relationship with his fellow creatures.”

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Book:The Invisible Pyramid: A Library of America eBook Classic
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“The times you lived through, the people you shared those times with — nothing brings it all to life like an old mix tape. It does a better job of storing up memories than actual brain tissue can do. Every mix tape tells a story. Put them together, and they can add up to the story of a life.”

PeopleDoeStoriesTogetherJobsCan DoMemoriesBrainMusicAddNostalgiaTapeTissuesBetter JobsSheffield
Book:Love Is a Mix Tape: Life, Loss, and What I Listened To
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“However, I have never clogged myself with the praises of pastoral life, nor with nostalgia for an innocent past of perverted acts in pastures. No. One need never leave the confines of New York to get all the greenery one wishes—I can’t even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there’s a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totally regret life. It is more important to affirm the least sincere; the clouds get enough attention as it is and even they continue to pass. Do they know what they’re missing? Uh huh.”

PeopleKnowsNeedsI CanImportantEnoughPastWishEnjoyAttentionRecordsMissingNew YorkRegretPraiseCloudsStoresNostalgiaInnocentGrassSincereBladesSubwayHandyPasturesBlades Of GrassRecord StoresGreenery
Book:The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara
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“I have no nostalgia for the patriarchy, please believe me. But what I have come to realize is that, when that patriarchic system was (rightfully) dismantled, it was not necessarily replaced by another form of protection. What I mean is--I never thought to ask a suitor the same challenging questions my father might have asked him, in a different age.”

BelieveMeanDifferentMightAgeFormAsksFatherRealizingChallengesPleaseProtectionNostalgiaBelieve In MeReplacedPatriarchyDifferent AgesSuitorsPlease Believe Me
Book:The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims
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