Quote by Diane Ackerman, A Natural Histor

Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains; another, a moonlit beach; a third, a family dinner of pot roast and sweet potatoes during a myrtle-mad August in a Midwestern town. Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines hidden under the weedy mass of years. Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth.

Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be une

Summary

This quote highlights the powerful and evocative nature of smells. It suggests that while smells may be momentary and elusive, they have the capability to elicit vivid and detailed memories. Just like land mines, smells can trigger a sudden explosion of memories, conjuring up specific moments and experiences from the past. The quote emphasizes the complexity and depth of our olfactory memories, as well as the ability of smells to transport us back in time, evoking nostalgia and emotion.

Topics

Nature Smell (scent)

By Diane Ackerman, A Natural Histor

Liked the quote? Share it with your friends.

Random Quotations

I have believed the best of every man. And find that to beli

I have believed the best of every man. And find that to believe is enough to make a bad man show him at his best, or even a good man swings his lantern higher.

William Butler Yeats

Money is the root of all evil, and yet it is such a useful r

Money is the root of all evil, and yet it is such a useful root that we cannot get on without it any more than we can without potatoes.

Louisa May Alcott

When I was a kid, I went to the store and asked the guy, Do

When I was a kid, I went to the store and asked the guy, Do you have any toy train schedules?

When I'm not writing or tweaking my computer, I do embroider

When I'm not writing or tweaking my computer, I do embroidery. When I'm not plunging into the past, tweaking, or embroidering, I'm reading books about history, computers, or embroidery.

I like to walk around my apartment naked. I like sitting aro

I like to walk around my apartment naked. I like sitting around in the nude watching sports, actually.

I love the smell of shampoo on a girl's hair. You can walk p

I love the smell of shampoo on a girl's hair. You can walk past someone and be like, 'Wow, you took a shower this morning, didn't you? Because you smell lovely.'

No man, proclaimed Donne , is an Island, and he was wrong. I

No man, proclaimed Donne , is an Island, and he was wrong. If we were not islands, we would be lost, drowned in each other's tragedies. We are insulated (a word that means, literally, remember, made into an island ) from the tragedy of others, by our island nature, and by the repetitive shape and form of the stories. The shape does not change: there was a human being who was born, lived, and then, by some means or another, died. There. You may fill in the details from your own experience. As unoriginal as any other tale, as unique as any other life. Lives are snowflakes-forming patterns we have seen before, as like one another as peas in a pod (and have you ever looked at peas in a pod? I mean, really looked at them? There's not a chance you'd mistake one for another, after a minute's close inspection), but still unique.

Life Hope Tragedy Originality Isolation Islands Insulation

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of i

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

I should have no objection to go over the same life from its

I should have no objection to go over the same life from its beginning to the end: requesting only the advantage authors have, of correcting in a second edition the faults of the first.

Benjamin Franklin

It has been said that the immortality of the soul is a grand

It has been said that the immortality of the soul is a grand peut-tre --but still it is a grand one. Everybody clings to it --the stupidest, and dullest, and wickedest of human bipeds is still persuaded that he is immortal.

Lord (George Gordon) Byron

Those that say you can't take it with you never saw a car pa

Those that say you can't take it with you never saw a car packed for a vacation trip.

There are no good girls gone wrong, just bad girls found out

There are no good girls gone wrong, just bad girls found out.