Quotes on Memories

Quotes about Memories and Poems about the Past

Quotes About Memories remind me of the importance of preserving and passing all that I can about my life... as well as what I know about the lives of my ancestors.

In other words, what I know about my parents, grandparents and before won't stop with me. I'll pass it on to my posterity. 

This page is dedicated to some of my favorite quotes about memories. I hope these quotes and peoms inspire you as much as they do me.

Please check back often. I will be adding new quotes and poems regulary.

Quotes on Memories...

“You are our living link to the past. Tell your grandchildren the story of the struggles waged, at home and abroad. Of sacrifices made for freedom’s sake. And tell them your own story as well – because [everybody] has a story to tell”. - Former president George Bush during State of the Union Address in 1990

“There is properly no history, only biography” – Emerson

"When and elder dies, it is as if an entire library has burned to the ground" - African saying

Poetry about the Past...

I never met Leo in person, but I've read a lot of his writings and I feel that I knew him pretty well. I only wish that my grandfather had written as much as Leo did.

His daughter Mary built and maintained this website for her dad. Leo VanMeer passed away in 2006 at the age of 98. Leo VanMeer Website

A House I Once Knew

There are mars on the doors and walls.
Its rooms are empty and wide.

Here and there is a broken pane
Where the night wind creeps inside.

The front porch has fallen to ruin
With vines in possession there.

A shed is tumbled and strewn
And rubbish is everywhere.

Somehow it softens in moonlight
And my fancy wanders free.

That old house is more than a house.
It once was home to me.

I can see a place by the window
Where firelight once played inside.

I can picture the porch as it used to be
And grounds so clean and wide.

Doors with well-oiledhinges
Let in our willing feet.

With everything in place as it should
And everything trim and neat.

I see it in mellowed reflection
Until years have changed it to be

A house with a memory; it’s more than a house
It once was home to me.

I’d give so much to live again
In that house when it was young.

Then it knew our laughter and tears,
With its memory only begun.

I was unwise to have left it, I know.
All I got for my pains

Was a heap of things I thought worthwhile
And desire to be back again.

It might be made home again, who knows?

I watch the moonlight slant through a tree,
And know that old house was more than a house.

It once was home to me.

Leave Quotes on Memories  |  Return to Homepage