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'I have been here before,' I said; I had been there before; first with Sebastian more than twenty years ago on a cloudless day in June, when the ditches were creamy with meadowsweet and the air heavy with all the scents of summer; it was a day of peculiar splendour, and though I had been there so often, in so many moods, it was to that first visit that my heart returned on this, my latest.

Evelyn Waugh#43

TimeMemoryNostalgiaPastPlaceTravel

About this quote

What does it mean?
Past visits to a place evoke deep memories that surpass recent ones.
In plain terms
Old memories of a place matter more than new ones.
What can you take from it?
First impressions linger longest.

Where it applies

  • travel
  • visiting old friends
  • reflection

Putting it to work

  • cherish early memories
  • value places

Questions to consider

  • Why do we remember beginnings?
  • Does time change places?

Another view

New experiences also hold value.

More from Evelyn Waugh

  1. When I reached C Company lines, which were at the top of the hill, I paused and looked back at the camp, just coming into full view below me through the grey m…

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  2. But I was in search of love in those days, and I went full of curiousity and the faint, unrecognized apprehension that here, at last, I should find that low do…

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  3. 'Up to a point, Lord Copper.'

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