Memorizing quotations per topic

General Memory Chat
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Hi everyone,

This is my first post, sorry in advance if not in the right place :grimacing: I actually hesitated categorizing it under “Poetry, Speeches, Literature” but I went for the “General”. Anyway just let me know and I will edit the post accordingly !

Basically I’d like to memorize a few quotations, from famous people, categorized by various topics.
For instance :

  • Text = “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
  • From = Winston S. Churchill
  • Topics = Persistence, Success

I’m curious how you would tackle that, essentially what technique or mix of techniques should be used ?

A few comments :

  • I’m aiming at 50 quotations and 10 different topics. But ideally this list should grow over time, so it is not “fixed” to 50 items only.

  • There can be several topics for each quotation, but no more than 3, mostly 1 or 2.

  • Regarding the text itself, since it is usually short, I need to recall “the exact words” of the quotation

  • In term of retrieval, I am not interested that much by the author, but rather the “topic” and the “quotation” itself obviously. If I don’t remember the author, that is acceptable.

  • I’m not interested to find all quotes from a specific author, but rather all quotes related to a specific topic.

  • this being said, knowing the author would be great - and I can easily visualize the authors, which could actually be turned as an advantage to remembering the full “package” (text + author + topics).

  • I have already created my own PAO system but I don’t see any use for it in that learning objective. Am I wrong in that statement ???

  • I feel like Memory Palace is the right way to go. But very practically my questions are :
    – how would you remember the “text” itself of the quotation ? I feel like the MP itself can not help here…
    – how would you add the “topics” to the quotation ? This is a 1-to-many relation
    – should I organize the quotations per topic, and use a room per topic in my MP ?
    – I have a MP for my house with about 10 rooms and 15 locations in each, which I am using for something else already. Can I reuse it for (since the 2 fields of learning are completely different) or should I go for a new MP ?

I am really curious to see how you would tackle this :slight_smile:

Tx a lot in advance !

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I would create a memory palace for each topic. I would not use a room for each topic but I would dedicate an entire house for a particular topic. The reason I prefer to have larger palaces for each topic is because I can add more information later.

In the case where your quotation had two topics that it could be applied to. I would put that one quotation in two palaces, namely, the success memory palace and the persistence memory palace. Then I would have an image or a figurine inside a location that would remind me of the other memory palace.

For example, in the success memory palace I have a location with the Church Hill quote. But on the location there is a old coin with the letter P imprinted on it. When I pick up the coin and put it my hand, it magically transports me to the persistence memory palace with the same quotation and vice versa. It is similar to the Gmail labeling system, one email could be in multiple labels.

I would also create a memory palace for your memory palaces. Each location would have a topic labeled on the door and when you open up the door it immediately transports you to a different house that is designated to that particular topic.

To memorize the text itself I would use a combination of techniques

  1. Story
    Text: “Their throat is an open grave, they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps in under their lips”

Story: Josue is walking towards AMANDAS DESK with his THROAT OPEN like a GRAVE. Dirt is spilling and worms are oozing out of his mouth. Then he USES his TONGUE that has a pointy tip to stab Amanda in the forehead and it causes her to DECEIVE herself. She now thinks she is a snake. She starts making hissing sounds, a VENOM OF ASP IS UNDER HER LIPS.

  1. Outline and Shadow
    First repeat the story in your head but later add details to your sensory experience in the shadowing process. Taste the dirt in his mouth, feel its texture, hear the slithering of the worms, see the tiny lines and creases in its skin. Hear the squirting of the blood as it splashes forth from her forehead. See him walking like a zombie, the yellow and blueness of his eyes, the absentmindedness like a drug addict, etc.

  2. Word Order
    Try to make your images follow the exact word order of your text so when you are at the recall phase you can avoid mixing up the structure.

  3. Anki.
    Put all of your quotations along with their stories in a Spaced Repetition Flash Card System

  4. Rhymes
    Sometimes it is difficult to come up with images for abstract words so you can use its sound to point to something else that it reminds you of.

For example,
Text: By no means!

Robb says to Brian, could you please see me in my office real quick? I have something to show you. He pulls out a pack of MEME receipts. He yells, BUY NO MEMES! And slams the folder on the floor. You’re fired! He says at the top of his lungs.

  1. Use Symbols
    These symbols can be used over and over again. So eventually you have your own symbolic dictionary.
  • Righteousness of God = Airplane | RIGHTeousness. The right reminds me of WRIGHT brothers.
  • Faith = Heart
  • Wrath = Coals
  • Law = Book

  1. Use Weather for Transitions
    “Therefore” could be a gust of wind or “For” could be snow, or “For this reason” could be hail. So, in your story you can include a gust of wind at the beginning and feel your clothes moving on your skin and the air on your cheeks

  2. Exaggeration | Bizarreness
    Instead of a plane make a plane made of cinnamon rolls and feel the frosting dripping from the seat. Make fish swim inside computer screens. When you make things bizzarre, it is more memorable in recall.

There are more things but I’ll leave it at that for now. This is how I would personally approach it.

7 Likes
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Only speaking to your memory palace question… I recommend making the memory palace for each topic directly relate to the topic of the quote. This way you’ll have no trouble finding it when needed.

For example, quotes dealing with success would be at your workplace (hopefully success takes place there!). In and around your workplace, create individual locations to house each success quote. If you have spiritual quotes, house those in a church. Friendship quotes, at your friend’s house, life quotes, a hospital… and so on.

1 Like
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Hi Ronald,

Thanks for the detailed answer, appreciated :+1:

Never thought about that, great idea, will give it a try and see how it works for me ! Thanks for the example with the coin. The letter “P” on it is to remind me on the “persistence” topic, right ?
Great analogy with Gmail labels, that’s exactly how I see it.

I think I read something similar elsewhere on this forum, I’m probably not yet there, as I’m just starting my journey on this whole memorizing quest, but at some point I may probably need it.

Great, exactly what I was looking for :slight_smile:
Thanks for detailing the “Story” method. I then searched in this forum about it and it’s getting clearer for me how to use it. To be honest, I was a bit reluctant to to do, but I just gave it a try on a few examples, and well it actually works - and it’s fun !

What is the “AMANDAS DESK” about, why is it appearing ? Is it the title of your text maybe ? I’m asking because it’s not appearing as such in your text (“Their throat is an open grave, they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps in under their lips”).

Sorry but I’m not familiar with what you call “shadowing” : what do you mean exactly ? is it visualizing / feeling the scene in your head ?

Yes indeed - do you know maybe of any existing “list” of concrete images for abstract notions, either on this forum or on the internet ? I tried a few Google searched but was not very successful so far.
I do understand anyway that building my own set of images is the way to go for long-term retention, but grasping some ideas from here & there would also be a huge time-saver :slight_smile:

How do you handle common words like AND, WITH, NO, BUT, etc. ?
Do you actually encode them with images or not ? I can see some pros & cons of both options… are there some best practices maybe or use cases where it makes more sense than other ?

Thanks again for your very valuable input !

Yannick

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Hi Julie,

Tx for your reply.

That is very clever ! Indeed it will help for the initial “recall”. It will also force me to create more diverse MP - so far I was mainly focused on my own house + a few journeys around the neighborhood.

Tx again for the tip !