--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: So much of our early gladness vanishes…" description: "\"So much of our early gladness vanishes utterly from our memory: we can never recall the joy with which we laid our heads on our mother's bosom or rode ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d2f/george-eliot-84_apricots_so-much-of-our-early-gladness-vanishes-u_577576.png" --- # So much of our early gladness vanishes utterly from our… ![“So much of our early gladness vanishes utterly from our memory: we can never recall the joy with which we laid our heads on our mother's bosom or rode on our father's back in childhood; doubtless that joy is wrought up into our nature, as the sunlight of long-past mornings is wrought up in the…” quote by George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d2f/george-eliot-84_apricots_so-much-of-our-early-gladness-vanishes-u_577576.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d2f/george-eliot-84_apricots_so-much-of-our-early-gladness-vanishes-u_577576.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d2f/george-eliot-84_apricots_so-much-of-our-early-gladness-vanishes-u_577576.png) > “So much of our early gladness vanishes utterly from our memory: we can never recall the joy with which we laid our heads on our mother's bosom or rode on our father's back in childhood; doubtless that joy is wrought up into our nature, as the sunlight of long-past mornings is wrought up in the soft mellowness of the apricot; but it is gone forever from our imagination, and we can only believe in the joy of childhood.” [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Childhood joy fades from memory, yet its essence remains embedded in our nature, influencing us like distant sunlight. **In simple terms:** Childhood joy fades but its essence stays. Key Takeaway Cherish and recall early joys. Themes memory nostalgia growth Mood melancholic thoughtful Type reflective emotional When to use this quote - family gatherings - personal reflection - therapy sessions Key Concepts psychology human development memory formation Questions to Reflect On - What childhood moments still affect you? - How can you reconnect with lost joy? A Different Perspective Memory is selective; not all joys are retained accurately. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Apricots](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/apricots/) [Childhood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/childhood/) [Childhood memories](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/childhood-memories/) [Father](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/father/) [Gladness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/gladness/) [Imagination](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/imagination/) [Joy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/joy/) [Memories](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/memories/) [Memory](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/memory/) [Morning](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/morning/) [Mother](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mother/) [Our father](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/our-father/) [Parenting](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/parenting/) [Past](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/past/) [Sunlight](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sunlight/) ## Related quotes > [Those who rhapsodize about the ease and joy of childhood have perhaps forgotten what it's like to be 12 years old.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joyce-maynard/those-who-rhapsodize-about-the-ease-and-joy-of-childhood-have-perhaps/) [Joyce Maynard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joyce-maynard/) > [We recall the joy and excitement of a nation that had found itself, the collective relief that we had stepped out of our restrictive…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nelson-mandela/we-recall-the-joy-and-excitement-of-a-nation-that-had-found-itself/) [Nelson Mandela](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nelson-mandela/) > [Not a great deal is known about the factors in childhood that doubtless underlie a person's choice of career - I'm talking now about…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nathaniel-branden/not-a-great-deal-is-known-about-the-factors-in-childhood-that/) [Nathaniel Branden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nathaniel-branden/) > [Fairy tales had been her first experience of the magical universe, and more than once she had wondered why people ended up distancing themselves…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/fairy-tales-had-been-her-first-experience-of-the-magical-universe-and/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [The older I grow the more earnestly I feel that the few joys of childhood are the best that life has to give.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ellen-glasgow/the-older-i-grow-the-more-earnestly-i-feel-that-the-few-joys-of/) [Ellen Glasgow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ellen-glasgow/) > [Notice, for example, that people who talk about "the joys of childhood" are always adults. Only an adult, utterly remote from the reality of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/russell-baker/notice-for-example-that-people-who-talk-about-the-joys-of-childhood/) [Russell Baker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/russell-baker/) > [Up to one's last breath, one may retain the simple joys of childhood, the poetic ecstasies of the young person, the enthusiasms of maturity.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eliphas-levi/up-to-one-s-last-breath-one-may-retain-the-simple-joys-of-childhood/) [Eliphas Levi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eliphas-levi/) ## More by George Eliot > [There are various orders of beauty, causing men to make fools of themselves in various styles.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/there-are-various-orders-of-beauty-causing-men-to-make-fools-of/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/but-the-effect-of-her-being-on-those-around-her-was-incalculably/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [Scepticismcan never be thoroughly applied, else life would come to a standstill.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/scepticismcan-never-be-thoroughly-applied-else-life-would-come-to-a/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [Under every guilty secret there is hidden a brood of guilty wishes, whose unwholesome infecting life is cherished by the darkness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/under-every-guilty-secret-there-is-hidden-a-brood-of-guilty-wishes/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [The most powerful movement of feeling with a liturgy is the prayer which seeks for nothing special, but is a yearning to escape from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/the-most-powerful-movement-of-feeling-with-a-liturgy-is-the-prayer/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [ “\[W\]e must learn to accommodate ourselves to the discovery that some of those cunningly-fashioned instruments called human souls have only a very limited range… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/w-e-must-learn-to-accommodate-ourselves-to-the-discovery-that-some-of/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [“Mr. Casaubon had never had a strong bodily frame, and his soul was sensitive without being enthusiastic: it was too languid to thrill out…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/mr-casaubon-had-never-had-a-strong-bodily-frame-and-his-soul-was/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [“... she took her husband's jokes and joviality as patiently as everything else, considering that "men would be so", and viewing the stronger sex…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/she-took-her-husband-s-jokes-and-joviality-as-patiently-as-everything/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [What is opportunity to the man who can't use it? An unfecundated egg, which the waves of time wash away into nonentity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/what-is-opportunity-to-the-man-who-can-t-use-it-an-unfecundated-egg/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [And, of course men know best about everything, except what women know better.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/and-of-course-men-know-best-about-everything-except-what-women-know/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [“But let the wise be warned against too great readiness at explanation: it multiplies the sources of mistake, lengthening the sum for reckoners sure…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/but-let-the-wise-be-warned-against-too-great-readiness-at-explanation/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [“But any one watching keenly the stealthy convergence of human lots, sees a slow preparation of effects from one life on another, which tells…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/but-any-one-watching-keenly-the-stealthy-convergence-of-human-lots/) [George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/) > [Perspective, as its inventor remarked, is a beautiful thing. 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The mystic…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ezra-pound/the-flavors-of-the-peach-and-the-apricot-are-not-lost-from-generation/) [Ezra Pound](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ezra-pound/) > [A field trip. You interested in doing something dangerous, and possibly illegal?" Does it involve underage girls, broken curfews and soorte4d fruit toppings?" I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rachel-vincent/a-field-trip-you-interested-in-doing-something-dangerous-and-possibly/) [Rachel Vincent](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rachel-vincent/) > [“I cast concerns away and instead wallow in the heady rosy-lavender-ish fragrance that is rising from the pan on the stove. Intense and intoxicating,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/caroline-eden/i-cast-concerns-away-and-instead-wallow-in-the-heady-rosy-lavender/) [Caroline Eden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/caroline-eden/) > [At the most difficult moments of my life, when it seemed that every door was closed to me, the taste of those apricots comes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabel-allende/at-the-most-difficult-moments-of-my-life-when-it-seemed-that-every/) [Isabel Allende](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabel-allende/) > [“Tomorrow, when the apricots bloom." Or,in other words, maybe tomorrow.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/soffer-jessica/tomorrow-when-the-apricots-bloom-or-in-other-words-maybe-tomorrow/) Soffer Jessica > [When you paint Spring, do not paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots, but just paint Spring. To paint willows, plums, peaches, or apricots is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/when-you-paint-spring-do-not-paint-willows-plums-peaches-or-apricots-2/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Drink very good tea out of a thin Wocester cup of colour between apricot and pink.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rumer-godden/drink-very-good-tea-out-of-a-thin-wocester-cup-of-colour-between/) [Rumer Godden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rumer-godden/) [Browse all 32 Apricots quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/apricots/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "So much of our early gladness vanishes utterly from our memory: we can never recall the joy with which we laid our heads on our mother's bosom or rode on our father's back in childhood; doubtless that joy is wrought up into our nature, as the sunlight of long-past mornings is wrought up in the soft mellowness of the apricot; but it is gone forever from our imagination, and we can only believe in the joy of childhood.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "George Eliot" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/so-much-of-our-early-gladness-vanishes-utterly-from-our-memory-we-can/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Apricots" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/so-much-of-our-early-gladness-vanishes-utterly-from-our-memory-we-can/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d2f/george-eliot-84_apricots_so-much-of-our-early-gladness-vanishes-u_577576.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d2f/george-eliot-84_apricots_so-much-of-our-early-gladness-vanishes-u_577576.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d2f/george-eliot-84_apricots_so-much-of-our-early-gladness-vanishes-u_577576.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“So much of our early gladness vanishes utterly from our memory: we can never recall the joy with which we…” — George Eliot", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "George Eliot", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "So much of our early gladness...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/so-much-of-our-early-gladness-vanishes-utterly-from-our-memory-we-can/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/so-much-of-our-early-gladness-vanishes-utterly-from-our-memory-we-can/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```