The Memory of an Elephant Quotes

“I will either watch over this life from somewhere in the sky, or I will melt into the earth and know nothing but dreamless sleep. No matter what it is, I am ready.”
― Alex Lasker, The Memory of an Elephant

“The earth we walk upon has no memory of us; its only concern is the constancy of day into night, season after season, and the memory of any one of us is soon gone from the earth forever.”
― Alex Lasker, The Memory of an Elephant

“These creatures were so profoundly sentient that even humans would have trouble rivaling their feelings.”
― Alex Lasker, The Memory of an Elephant

“The road not taken, the courage to speak up or remain silent in the face of a bully, the career chosen or abandoned, the lover married or spurned—the decision and its effects are only apparent with time. And there is no way to go back and change it. For better or worse, a life’s course is set from that moment on.”
― Alex Lasker, The Memory of an Elephant

“In almost every life there is a moment where a choice is made that changes everything from that point on,”
― Alex Lasker, The Memory of an Elephant

“There is a moment in most failed marriages that, if acknowledged and dealt with, can possibly save the relationship. If missed, there is no going back.”
― Alex Lasker, The Memory of an Elephant

“the most exhilarating of my life so far, though at the time I didn’t realize it would not last; I thought life would always keep getting fuller.”
― Alex Lasker, The Memory of an Elephant

“The morning can dawn perfectly peaceful, your stomach full and your family content and loving beside you, and by that night your body can be alone on a riverbank, the birds of death picking at your flesh and the light gone from your eyes.”
― Alex Lasker, The Memory of an Elephant

“Decades after being taken from his home, then dropped over a thousand miles away in a landscape he had never seen, this creature’s intelligence and heart were so powerful that they were guiding him home? Unbelievable.”
― Alex Lasker, The Memory of an Elephant

“The one weakness he had, the one soft spot in his armor, was for the defenseless. Not defenseless humans, who he pretty much blamed for whatever lot had befallen them, but defenseless animals.”
― Alex Lasker, The Memory of an Elephant

“They are the rulers of this earth, there are too many of them, and the rest of us are at their mercy.”
― Alex Lasker, The Memory of an Elephant

“was there a difference in killing elephants for their ivory if you were a poor African? Was this not a bit hypocritical?”
― Alex Lasker, The Memory of an Elephant

“As in any family when a son or daughter has been taken early, the grief is cataclysmic. It lessens with time but never goes away; the parents must learn to live with broken hearts for the rest of their lives.”
― Alex Lasker, The Memory of an Elephant

“There may be times when you feel so lonely you’ll think you’re living on the dark side of the moon. When you feel like that, remember, I went through it too. So did my father, and his father before him. It’s completely natural. You just have to get through it.”
― Alex Lasker, The Memory of an Elephant

“grief is cataclysmic. It lessens with time but never goes away; the parents must learn to live with broken hearts for the rest of their lives.”
― Alex Lasker, The Memory of an Elephant

“In almost every life there is a moment where a choice is made that changes everything from that point on; the road not taken, the courage to speak up or remain silent in a face of a bully, the carrier chosen or abandoned, the decision and its effects are only apparent with time. And there is no way to go back and change it for better or worse, a life's course is set from that moment on.”
― Alex Lasker, The Memory of an Elephant

“I remembered the second most important rule of life, but I should have paid more heed; when things are going well, embrace the days, because they never last for long. The dark wind is always waiting over the horizon, and it can come racing down the plains at any moment.”
― Alex Lasker, The Memory of an Elephant

“many sociopaths, Gichinga was extremely adept at mimicking real emotions when he needed to, and now he employed that gift in the most important performance of his life.”
― Alex Lasker, The Memory of an Elephant