Nostalgia is one of the most powerful sensations we can feel. Some, such as collectors or antique dealers, dedicate a large part of their lives to the permanent search for this emotion.
Taking into account that throughout history there are many thinkers who have spoken at some point about this psychological phenomenon, there are many reflections written about it. Here you will find a selection of these, through a list of the best phrases about nostalgia
1. I do not return to the places where I was; I remember them with a certain sense of nostalgia. (Madeleine Stowe)
Some people don’t want to feel the emotion of nostalgia very often, which is easy to understand considering that this feeling reminds us of how emotionally weak we really are.
2. No nostalgia feels as strong as nostalgia for things that never existed. (Rabih Alameddine)
Unrequited love is something that can also awaken a lot of nostalgia in us, although, as Rabih Alameddine tells us in this quote, it has never been able to materialize.
3. Everyone has the right to their own nostalgia. (James Wolcott)
All people will feel the emotion of nostalgia at some point in their lives, regardless of what our culture or social position may be.
4. There is always a kind of nostalgia for the places where you recognize yourself. (Sam Shepard)
Those places that we visit one day will always awaken great memories in us although it is very likely that we only remember the most positive ones.
5. You may suffer from nostalgia in the presence of a loved one when you see that in the near future they will no longer be with you. (Milan Kundera)
When we know that a loved one will sooner or later abandon us, we begin to feel nostalgic for them. That is why as people we should never leave a hug undone, or an I love you unsaid.
6. Nostalgia is a dangerous way to compare. (Brene Brown)
When remembering something with nostalgia we will never be objective. We must stick to concrete data if we want to be able to compare two different stages of our lives.
7. Many people feel nostalgic thinking that they were very happy in their adolescence, but that is probably an illusion. (Jo Brand)
Nostalgia is an emotion that will always be there to sweeten our past, regardless of whether it was more positive or more negative for us.
8. Nostalgia is a seductive liar. (George Ball)
Living in nostalgia is something that some of us may find comforting, although over time we may discover that our memories and reality can be two completely antagonistic things.
9. We grow up with dreams in our eyes and songs on our lips, and then we discover that life is not what we thought it would be. And then, we discovered nostalgia. (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
As we all discover at some point in our lives, existence is perhaps much more complicated than we initially imagined, it is at that precise moment that some people usually discover what nostalgia is.
10. True nostalgia is an ephemeral composition of unconnected memories. (Florence King)
Our memories and reality can be two totally different things and, on some occasions, they will even have absolutely nothing in common.
11. I prefer the mystical clouds of nostalgia rather than the real thing. (Robert Wyatt)
There are many people who decide to live their lives permanently remembering the past, something that as we can see also happened to the British composer Robert Wyatt.
12. When you return to your old home you realize that you didn’t miss the house, but your childhood. (Sam Ewing)
It certainly does not depend on the place but rather on the moment. If as adults we visit a place where we were as children, we can realize that that moment from the past, no matter how much we want it, will never return.
13. Looking at the past for a moment serves to refresh your vision, to recompose it; and make it more capable of looking forward. (Margaret Barber)
Remembering the past can help us live the present more fully although we should not dwell on our thoughts if we want to be able to succeed in the future.
14. Really, every era has its own false nostalgia. (Gary Ross)
All eras tend to arouse nostalgia in a certain generation; which era is the most nostalgic for us will ultimately depend on the moment in which we were born.
15. Nostalgia can be very powerful in the right hands. (Neel Mukherjee)
Some political speeches appeal greatly to people’s nostalgia, something very logical if we take into account that political scientists are very aware of the great persuasive power that a feeling of nostalgia can have among the population.
16. Nostalgia for what is lost is more bearable than nostalgia for what one never had. (Mignon McLaughlin)
If at some point in your life you want something very strongly and never get it, it is very likely that you will never stop wanting it throughout your entire life.
17. You can’t have a better tomorrow if you spend all your time thinking about the past. (Charles Kettering)
If you do not live in the present fully, your future will never be what you want. Taking this into account, we should not waste our time absorbed in our thoughts about the past.
18. Nostalgia is an archive that eliminates the harshness of the old days. (Doug Larson)
Those details from the past that were most unpleasant for us do not usually appear when we remember something with nostalgia, and that is why we can get the feeling that our life was happier before.
19. Nostalgia, more than anything, gives us the shudder of our own imperfection. (Emil Cioran)
Nostalgic memories tend to eliminate those things about us that we like least, thus creating an illusion in our mind of false perfection.
20. Nostalgia is being blind to the bad and only remembering the good. (Jarod Kintz)
When we remember a certain moment with nostalgia we are not really being objective, as people we should be more aware that the past inevitably also had its bad moments.
21. In music, trends are always rising and falling in popularity, but nostalgia never dies. (Anthony Fantano)
Being inspired by an old song to create a new song is something that all artists know always works, because with just 4 notes a song can be able to make us feel a past and probably happiest moment of our life.
22. It becomes easier, as you get older, to fall into nostalgia. (Ted Koppel)
As we accumulate experiences, nostalgia tends to become more powerful in us and that is precisely why it is older people who tend to be more nostalgic.
23. I am not one of those who are homesick; I think it locks you into a moment in time and you don’t think about the now, about what needs to be done. (Eleanor Holmes Norton)
The present is the most valuable moment that we as individuals possess, because it is in that precise moment where we all live 100 percent of our lives.
24. The memory of things from the past is not necessarily the memory of things as they actually happened. (Marcel Proust)
Certainly, people do not usually remember in a reliable way and therefore, we should never fall into the illusion that every past moment was always better.
25. Nothing is more responsible for the “good old days” than having a bad memory. (Franklin P. Adams)
Memories are usually an improved version of what once happened to us, so we must learn to be objective with our thoughts if we want to be able to live our lives in a much happier way.
26. Nostalgia is when you wish things would always stay the same. (Jeanne Moreau)
If we are happy at some point in our lives we will always wish that it never ends, although unfortunately, as we will discover, time is something that nothing and no one can stop.
27. Distance not only gives nostalgia, but also perspective and perhaps objectivity. (Robert Morgan)
With the passage of time, people are able to realize things that we did not understand before and we can even heal some emotional wounds that before may have seemed to have no solution.
28. Nostalgia is a powerful feeling, it can drown out anything. (Terrence Malick)
Nostalgia is such a powerful feeling that it can even confuse us, which is why we must make sure to always live fully in the present.
29. How can I feel nostalgia for a world I have never known? (Che Guevara)
Depending on what our past has been like, we tend to have nostalgia for one thing or another, something that shows us why this feeling is largely so unique and special.
30. Nostalgia often leads to useless speculation. (Paul Getty)
No matter how much we remember the past, putting special emphasis on it will not change what happened one day. As people we should all worry more about our future than our past.
31. Nostalgia is a complicated topic for me. I am attracted to nostalgia, but I intellectually deny it. (Miuccia Prada)
On certain occasions, nostalgia can make us feel emotionally sensitive, which is why some people tend to repress these types of emotions.
32. Nostalgia is not a good place to live. (Gulzar)
As they say, the past is in the past. The present is always too bright to live permanently in our memories
33. Nowadays, being homesick is almost as unacceptable as racism. (Terry Eagleton)
Nostalgia is an emotion that as individuals we tend to keep to ourselves, since speaking with nostalgia in society is a fact that sometimes causes some people to be somewhat suspicious.
34. What you end up remembering is not always the same as what you have experienced. (Julian Barnes)
Memory can sometimes play tricks on us and even if we believe that we remember something reliably, it is likely that through nostalgia we have greatly sweetened said memory.
35. In life, the warm glow of nostalgia amplifies the good memories and minimizes the bad. (Stephanie Coontz)
Human beings always tend to remember good times more strongly, since many difficult situations will probably be forgotten by us at some point in our lives.
36. Nostalgia is the disease of those people who do not realize that today is the nostalgia of tomorrow. (Zeena Schreck)
Throughout our lives, people are always creating new experiences, which is why what happens to us in the present will also be remembered with nostalgia in the future.
37. I always make the separation between nostalgia and sentimentality. Nostalgia is genuine, one regrets things that really happened. (Pete Hamill)
As Pete Hamill comments in this quote, nostalgia is based on situations that really happened, which is why this feeling comes to have so much strength.
38. Nostalgia is one of the most legitimate and most enduring human emotions. (Irving Kristol)
Nostalgia is an emotion that, when the day comes, all of us as human beings will experience, regardless of our nationality or level of purchasing power.
39. There is a lot of nostalgia for the music of the past. (Jens Lekman)
Listening to an old song will always awaken great nostalgia in us; some of these songs may even end up becoming our favorites.
40. Imagining the future is a certain type of nostalgia. (John Green)
Dreaming about a better future can actually be a great exercise in nostalgia, a type of thought that is usually thought of by young people.
41. There is a certain romance and nostalgia in the place you leave. (David Guterson)
When you leave a place and know that you will probably never visit it again, nostalgia is an emotion that will undoubtedly always be present.
42. The end of something is not fun because there is nostalgia in it. Even the end of a bad relationship has a certain nostalgia to it. (Jessica Capshaw)
Every love relationship is always remembered with nostalgia because we must keep in mind that no matter how bad it has gone for us, it will always have had positive moments worth remembering.
43. There are no better days than those we remember. (Colum McCann)
Those wonderful days that we once lived in the past will always be remembered by us. Memory is undoubtedly a fantastic tool that can allow us to move through time at breakneck speed.
44. Nostalgia is a product of dissatisfaction and anger. It is a settlement of grievances between the past and the present. (Don DeLillo)
Our current problems tend to make us remember the past in a nostalgic way, when in reality it is very likely that we also had equally important problems in the past.
45. Why is the past so charming to all of us? (Franz Grillparzer)
Our memories are usually a very sweetened version of reality, this is due to a mechanism that our brain has to prevent us from falling into depression.
46. Nostalgia is a sweet place for a poet and a writer, but it is a distraction. You can’t live in a distraction. (Gulzar)
No matter how much we remember the past, it will never represent our reality, we must live fully today if we want to be able to achieve all our vital goals.
47. I don’t have time for nostalgia; Life is too short, I don’t have time to sit and say I miss things. (Kate Adie)
Although living in the past may seem attractive to us, only if we decide to take advantage of the present will we be happier in the future.
48. There is something incredibly nostalgic and meaningful about the annual autumn leaf fall. (Joe L. Wheeler)
The colors of autumn and the fall of the leaves show us how everything in life is totally ephemeral, just as they do, one day we will also wither.
49. Our culture’s obsession with ancient objects makes us unable to separate history from nostalgia. (Sloane Crosley)
Old objects usually arouse great nostalgia in many people because it is very common that when we see them we immediately tend to remember what our life was like back then.
50. I never wanted us to be an exercise in nostalgia, living in the shadow of other artists. (Steven Wilson)
Only by being unique and original will we be able to succeed as artists, because those who tend to be inspired by third parties will sooner or later give the sensation of being just a copy of the original.
51. If you are obsessed with nostalgia, imagine that today is yesterday and go out and have fun. (Art Buchwald)
Enjoying the present is the best way to live our life, we should never let memories of the past direct our actions in the present.
52. Nostalgia is the vice of the elderly. We watch so many old movies that memories come to us in monochrome. (Angela Carter)
Watching movies that we saw as children will always be something that makes us very nostalgic, and it is even very likely that as time goes by we will also decide to show them to our younger loved ones.
53. Nostalgia is: Do you remember the shopping center that was here? (George Saunders)
Those places that we visited one day and that currently no longer exist will always be remembered by all of us with great affection and melancholy.
54. Music evokes many feelings in us, memories, nostalgia; things that connect with our past. (Olga Kurylenko)
Music is an art that can take us back in time with great ease although unfortunately this will only happen within our memory.
55. It is never safe to be nostalgic for something, unless you are completely sure that there is no chance of it appearing again. (Bill Vaughan)
When we know that something will never be repeated again, nostalgia usually appears immediately. As individuals we always tend to long for everything that once gave us satisfaction.
56. I would trade all my tomorrows for just one day from the past. (Kris Kristofferson)
Many of us tend to wish we could relive experiences from the past, something that, no matter how much we hate it, simply turns out to be impossible.
57. People see the past through a thick veil of nostalgia, but life was hard if you weren’t a rich and powerful white man. (Jon Hamm)
The passage of time can make us forget those most negative aspects that our lives contained in the past, as human beings we always tend to keep everything positive that perhaps one day happened to us.
58. In the twilight of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia. (Milan Kundera)
Even if tomorrow we end up abandoning our romantic partner, we will always remember with great affection the good moments that we lived with her one day.
59. In immigrant poetry, nostalgia is as common as confetti in parades or political rallies. (Amitava Kumar)
The fact of leaving your homeland is something very hard for anyone, which is why practically all immigrants always remember their land with great nostalgia.
Related article: “Ulysses syndrome: chronic stress in immigrants”
60. One always feels at home in his memory. (Vladimir Nabokov)
All those positive moments that one day we experienced in the past will always be remembered by us with great nostalgia. The past, on the other hand, always seems to be better in our memory than reality was.
