Nostalgia for what we have lost is more bearable than nostalgia for what we have never had...
         -- Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

God gave us memories that we might have roses in December.
         --J.M. Barrie, Courage, 1922

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.

We do not remember days; we remember moments.
         --Cesare Pavese, The Burning Brand

Pleasure is the flower that passes; remembrance, the lasting perfume.
         --Jean de Boufflers