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22 quotes
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Topic·Memory✕clear
Philosophical dialogue · Dialogue · Philosophical literature

I would have you imagine, then, that there exists in the mind of man a block of wax, which is of different sizes in different men; harder, moister, and having more or less of purity in one than another, and in some of an intermediate quality... Let us say that this tablet is a gift of Memory, the mother of the Muses; and that when we wish to remember anything which we have seen, or heard, or thought in our own minds, we hold the wax to the perceptions and thoughts, and in that material receive the impression of them as from the seal of a ring; and that we remember and know what is imprinted as long as the image lasts; but when the image is effaced, or cannot be taken, then we forget and do not know.

Socrates
Plato, Theaetetus · 369 BC
★ 3.8
Film · Neo-noir · Thriller (film) · Thriller

No, no, really! Memory's not perfect. It's not even that good. Ask the police. Eyewitness testimony is unreliable. The cops don't catch a killer by sitting around remembering stuff. They collect facts, they make notes and they draw conclusions. Facts, not memory. That's how you investigate. I know. It's what I used to do. Look, memory can change the shape of a room. It can change the color of a car and memories can be distorted. They're just an interpretation. They're not a record. They're irrelevant if you have the facts.

Leonard
Memento · 2000
★ 1.9