recollect quotes

There is a wicked inclination in most people to suppose anoldmandecayed inhisintellects.Ifayoungor middle- aged man, when leaving a company, does not recollect where he laid his hat, it is nothing; but if the same inattention is discovered inanold man, people will shrug up their shoulders, and say,'His memory isgoing.'

- Samuel known as Dr Johnson Johnson
  Quoted in  James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol.4.

We must recollect†what it is we have at stake, what it is we have to contend for. It is for our property, it is for our liberty, it is for our independence, nay for our existence as a nation; it is for our character, it is for our very name as Englishmen, it is for everything dear and valuable to man on this side of the grave.

-William known as  theYounger Pitt
  Speech, 22 Jul, on the breaking of the Peace of Amiens and the resumption of the war with Napoleon. Quoted in Speeches of the Rt. Hon.William Pitt (1806), vol.4.

The history of a battle is not unlike the history of a ball. Some individuals may recollect all the little events of which the great result is the battle won or lost; but no individual can recollect the order in which, or the exact moment at which, they occurred, which makes all the difference.

- Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
  Of the Battle of Waterloo. Letter, 8 Aug.