Klaus Mann's Turning Point

From the beginning (first chapter) of Klaus Mann's autobiography:

Memories are made of peculiar stuff, elusive and yet compelling, powerful and fleet. You cannot trust your reminiscences, and yet there is no reality except the one we remember. Every moment we pass through derives its meaning from the preceding one. There would be no present nor future if the past were blotted out in the minds of men. It is our capacity for recollection which stands between us and chaos — a rather fragile bulwark, we must admit.