"I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me"

This is wonderful, I often regret having completely forgotten the content of some books, but this makes me feel less bad about it.

If you came up with this thank you dear internet person!

This came up recently on HN, in terms of "kinds of memory" - there are different forms of memory, and we have pretty good evidence that some of them persist regardless of conscious recall. Rest assured that even if you have poor recall of them they continue to shape who you are and how you behave.

If you want to learn about the provenance: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/06/20/books/

Appreciated!

Lovely quote! Emerson.

Kurt Vonnegut wrote something similar about doing art of any kind.