Thoughtful girl sitting on sill embracing knees looking at window

50+ Nostalgia Quotes

"True nostalgia is an ephemeral composition of disjointed memories." - Florence King; read more nostalgia quotes below

Thoughtful girl sitting on sill embracing knees looking at window
50+ Nostalgia Quotes | iSTOCK

Nostalgia Quotes

Nostalgia means many different feelings depending on every person. It could be summarized as the feeling of sorrow but also of love and tenderness that we feel whenever we think about something or someone that we no longer have or that is no longer with us. Here you will find a compilation of the best and wisest nostalgia quotes for you to be able to cope with it and feel understood.

1"There's a certain nostalgia and romance in a place you left."

David Guterson

2"We were together. I forget the rest.”

Walt Whitman

3“The past is a candle at great distance: too close to let you quit, too far to comfort you.”

Amy Bloom

4“Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were.”

Marcel Proust

5"The only real security in a relationship lies neither in looking back in nostalgia, nor forward in dread or anticipation, but living in the present relationship and accepting it as it is now."

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

6"I prefer the mystic clouds of nostalgia to the real thing, to be honest."

Robert Wyatt

7“Once you embrace your value, talents and strengths, it neutralizes when others think less of you.”

Rob Liano

8“We are homesick most for the places we have never known.”

Carson McCullers

9“Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being.”

Albert Camus

10"We are made of so many words. Stories. Reasons. Dreams. Days that have left us. Days that have remained."

Victoria Erickson

11"A photograph is the pause button of life."

Unknown

12"Time was passing like a hand waving from a train I wanted to be on. I hope you never have to think about anything as much as I think about you."

Jonathan Safran Foer

13"Looking back is a way to sharpen the focus on the things you want to change in your life. I think there's something about nostalgia that really puts a fine point on the here-and-now, and that can be incredibly fascinating and interesting and engaging for the mind."

Sarah Paulson

14“I love how summer just wraps it’s arms around you like a warm blanket.”

Kellie Elmore

15“I don’t have a photograph, but you can have my footprints. They’re upstairs in my socks."

Groucho Marx

16"Nostalgia in reverse, the longing for yet another strange land, grew especially strong in spring."

Vladimir Nabokov

17"I'm not the sort to wallow in nostalgia about the good old days."

Kabir Bedi

18“This empty shell holds nothing but the echoes of what was.”

Jenim Dibie

19"Nostalgia is a process by which dreams become memories without ever coming true."

Robert Brault

20"Nostalgia is a seductive liar."

George Ball

21“Even the memory of cradling her in my arms is pure euphoria. And all that I ask out of life is that it be constant and unending euphoria.”

Roman Payne

22“I'm nostalgic for a better tomorrow.”

Brian Spellman

23“Sometimes loneliness makes the loudest noise.”

Aaron Ben-Ze'ev

24"Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory."

Dr. Seuss

25"Music and books: the original time-machines."

Eric Van Vuren

26"Nostalgia paints a smile on the stony face of the past."

Mason Cooley

27"Nostalgia, the vice of the aged. We watch so many old movies our memories come in monochrome."

Angela Carter

28"Nostalgia is one of the legitimate and certainly one of the most enduring of human emotions; but the politics of nostalgia is at best distracting, at worst pernicious."

Irving Kristol

29"You can't have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time."

Charles Kettering

30"The scenic ideals that surround even our national parks are carriers of a nostalgia for heavenly bliss and eternal calmness."

Robert Smithson

31“Nostalgia is a bittersweet emotion; it entails the act of recalling complicated memories of bygone days.”

Kilroy J. Oldster

32“Real museums are places where time is transformed into space."

Orhan Pamuk

33"Always stand up for what you believe in... Even if it means standing alone."

Kim Hanks

34"Nostalgia is when you want things to stay the same. I know so many people staying in the same place."

Jeanne Moreau

35"People look back on those days through a thick veil of nostalgia, but life was hard if you were anything other than a rich, powerful white male."

Jon Hamm

36"It is one of the paradoxes of American literature that our writers are forever looking back with love and nostalgia at lives they couldn't wait to leave."

Anatole Broyard

37"Nostalgia is a form of depression both for a society and an individual."

Abbie Hoffman

38"Nostalgia locates desire in the past where it suffers no active conflict and can be yearned toward pleasantly."

Robert Hass

39"I have no sense of nostalgia. Tomorrow is what interests me."

François Pinault

40"Nostalgia isn't what it used to be."

Peter De Vries

41“Never look back; you may only find what you left or let you go.”

Stefanos Livos

42“You can go other places, all right - you can live on the other side of the world, but you can't ever leave home.”

Sue Monk Kidd

43"In the sunset of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia."

Milan Kundera

44"To me, nostalgia is nothing more than a mindless plundering of the past for the common place."

Mel Torme

45"Nostalgia is always doomed and dooming."

Sherman Alexie

46"I don't like nostalgia unless it's mine."

Lou Reed

47"I think whatever generation you're in has a nostalgia for the generations past and the generations you weren't in."

Meghan Daum

48“I sometimes seem to myself to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias.”

Vikram Seth

49"I just really gravitate towards a nostalgia for a time when things were simpler. When beauty was more classical and glamorous."

Emmy Rossum

50"Nostalgia is simply the result of aging and liking the life you’ve lived. Be happy you can feel it it’s a good sign."

Anthony Marais

51“Philosophy is really nostalgia, the desire to be at home.”

Novalis

52“People leave traces of themselves where they feel most comfortable, most worthwhile.”

Haruki Murakami

53"The deeper the nostalgia and the more complete the fear, the p"rer, the richer the word and the secret."

Elie Wiesel