Nostalgia sometimes gets a bad rap, as if looking back automatically means being stuck in the past. But I believe strongly that in moderation, nostalgia can be deeply enriching. It reconnects us with the people, places, music, experiences and versions of ourselves that helped shape our lives. A familiar song, old photograph or remembered moment can instantly bring warmth, meaning and perspective to the present. In many ways, this blog is a celebration of nostalgia — not as an escape from life now, but as a way of honouring the richness, beauty and texture of a life that has been genuinely lived.
Here are quotes about nostalgia that I resonate with
- The out-of-date returns in due course as the picturesque. Agatha Christie
- There's a certain nostalgia and romance in a place you left. David Guterson
- True nostalgia is an ephemeral composition of disjointed memories. Florence King
- Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days. Doug Larson
- Nostalgia: A device that removes the ruts and potholes from memory lane. Doug Larson
- Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory. Franklin P. Adams
- Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity. Robert Morgan
- We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it. George Eliot
- Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson: you find the present tense, but the past perfect! Owens Lee Pomeroy
- We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. Carson McCullers
- Nostalgia, the vice of the aged. We watch so many old movies our memories come in monochrome. Angela Carter
- If you're hung up on nostalgia, pretend today is yesterday and just go out and have one hell of a time. Art Buchwald
- Remember this... develop a sense of nostalgia for something, or you'll never figure out what's important. Gary Shteyngart
- You know what nostalgia is, don't you? It's basically a matter of recalling the fun without reliving the pain. Bette Davis
- Nostalgia is the aching realization that you can't go back again. The longing, no matter how intense, can never be met. R. C. Sproul, Jr.
- A feeling of sadness and longing, That is not akin to pain, And resembles sorrow only As the mist resembles the rain. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- There is a lovely warmness about feelings of nostalgia as though in one's head one is putting on a pair of comfy old slippers and curling up in front of a fire. Bill Geist
- Nostalgia is a way of remembering people and places and things, and wishing things hadn't changed. It has a sweetness to it. Sadness is just--well--being sad. Linda Lael Miller
- Nostalgia for what we have lost is more bearable than nostalgia for what we have never had, for the first involves knowledge and pleasure, the second only ignorance and pain. Mignon McLaughlin
- We are so habitually nostalgic by now that we anticipate looking back in the midst of enjoyment, look forward to watching the videos we're taking of our children even as we make them. Deborah Tall
- There are a few moments in your life when you are truly and completely happy, and you remember to give thanks. Even as it happens you are nostalgic for the moment, you are tucking it away in your scrapbook. David Benioff
