A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.

Well, I mean, to me, I think my ultimate – my ultimate goal is winning championships and – and I understand that me going down as one of the greats will not happen until I, you know, win a championship.

Context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one’s life.

Almost everything that is great has been done by youth.

Man is the only animal capable of reasoning, though many others possess the faculty of memory and instruction in common with him.

So many people have this idea: I want to achieve something great or be somebody great. And they neglect the step that leads to greatness. They don’t honor this step at this moment because they have this idea of some future moment where they are going to be great.

When the party gives me a responsibility, I must do it with complete dedication. God has given me the ability, which I utilise to its optimum.

Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind.

Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability.

For me, I don’t want to cheat the game by saying, or kind of doing lip service by saying, I want to be the greatest ever. I want to be able to show it.

I make such big efforts to forget things and I can’t tell the story of my life because, thank God, I’m still living it.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl.

All my life, whenever it comes time to make a decision, I make it and forget about it.

The wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing; and when men succeed in this they are always praised rather than condemned. But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes.

Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today’s events.

If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.

But men are men; the best sometimes forget.

No memory of having starred atones for later disregard, or keeps the end from being hard.

The nature of the human mind is such that unless it is stimulated by images of things acting upon it from without, all remembrance of them passes easily away.

To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.

Never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity.

Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.

Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.

Great is the hand that holds dominion over man by a scribbled name.

Holes in the memory. You grab on to some things, others have completely disappeared.

When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it happened or not.

Nothing stands out so conspicuously, or remains so firmly fixed in the memory, as something which you have blundered.

A great thing can only be done by a great person; and they do it without effort.

Every time I hear a politician mention the word ‚stimulus,‘ my mind flashes back to high school biology class, when I touched battery wires to a dead frog to make it twitch.

I fear that there are too many priesthood bearers who have done little or nothing to develop their ability to access the powers of Heaven.

I do not, in fact, use many puns. Certainly there are far fewer than people believe. But I suspect the ones I do occasionally use tend to hang around in people’s memories for a while.

Great men, unknown to their generation, have their fame among the great who have preceded them, and all true worldly fame subsides from their high estimate beyond the stars.

No trace of slavery ought to mix with the studies of the freeborn man. No study, pursued under compulsion, remains rooted in the memory.

Our greatness has always come from people who expect nothing and take nothing for granted – folks who work hard for what they have, then reach back and help others after them.

People always tell you, ‚Be humble. Be humble.‘ When was the last time someone told you to be amazing? Be great! Be great! Be awesome! Be awesome!

Ability without honor is useless.

It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability.

I have an excellent memory, a most excellent memory.

Sweet is the memory of past troubles.

I do sometimes look back at things I’ve written in the past, and think, ‚I just don’t remember being the person who wrote that.‘

Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation – not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago.

My father belongs to the generation that fought the war in the 1940s. When I was a kid my father told me stories – not so many, but it meant a lot to me. I wanted to know what happened then, to my father’s generation. It’s a kind of inheritance, the memory of it.

I have total recall. I remember being born. I remember being in the womb, I remember being inside. Coming out was great.

Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders.

My first recollection is that of a bugle call.

The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

That was always the difference between Muhammad Ali and the rest of us. He came, he saw, and if he didn’t entirely conquer – he came as close as anybody we are likely to see in the lifetime of this doomed generation.

The memory of that scene for me is like a frame of film forever frozen at that moment: the red carpet, the green lawn, the white house, the leaden sky. The new president and his first lady.

Sometimes I’ll jot a clever turn of phrase down. Sometimes I’ll just remember it.

Voters quickly forget what a man says.

Anybody with ability can play in the big leagues. But to be able to trick people year in and year out the way I did, I think that was a much greater feat.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

Things may not be immediately discernible in what a man writes, and in this sometimes he is fortunate; but eventually they are quite clear, and by these and the degree of alchemy that he possesses, he will endure or be forgotten.

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.

Kindnesses are easily forgotten; but injuries! what worthy man does not keep those in mind?

Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness. An appeal is a mask covering the face of tribulation.

The United States is definitely ahead in culture of innovation. If someone wants to accomplish great things, there is no better place than the U.S.