The larger lesson is that because our memories are formed by the act of remembering them, controlling the conditions under which they are recalled can actually change their content.

—how wonderful to be who I am,
made out of earth and water,
my own thoughts, my own fingerprints—
all that glorious, temporary stuff.
Mary Oliver, excerpt of “On Meditating, Sort Of”, in Blue Horses

"In poetry, non-knowing is a primal condition; if there exists a skill in the writing of poetry, it is in the minor task of associating images. But the entire life of the image is in its dazzling splendor, in the fact that an image is a transcending of all the premises of sensibility. It becomes evident, then, that a man's work stands out from life to such an extent that life cannot explain it."

Gaston Bauchelard

"I don't think any thought process is possible without personal experience. That is, every thought is an afterthought, a reflection on some other matter or event."
- Hannah Arendt on Modernity (1964)