--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Sometimes people who had been together…" description: "\"Sometimes people who had been together for a long time got to imagining that things used to be better, even when they weren't.\" — Sarah Addison Allen" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d57/sarah-addison-allen-810_imagining_sometimes-people-who-had-been-together-f_9366.png" --- # Sometimes people who had been together for a long time got… ![“Sometimes people who had been together for a long time got to imagining that things used to be better, even when they weren't.” quote by Sarah Addison Allen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d57/sarah-addison-allen-810_imagining_sometimes-people-who-had-been-together-f_9366.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d57/sarah-addison-allen-810_imagining_sometimes-people-who-had-been-together-f_9366.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d57/sarah-addison-allen-810_imagining_sometimes-people-who-had-been-together-f_9366.png) > “Sometimes people who had been together for a long time got to imagining that things used to be better, even when they weren't.” [Sarah Addison Allen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-addison-allen/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. People often romanticize past relationships, believing they were better than they actually were, due to nostalgia and selective memory. **In simple terms:** Nostalgia distorts our view of past relationships. Key Takeaway Memory bias can idealize former partnerships. Themes nostalgia memory distortion relationship perception Mood reflective melancholic Type observational psychological When to use this quote - reconnecting with an ex - family reunions - anniversary reflections Key Concepts cognitive bias selective recall Practical Applications - practice mindful recollection - focus on present dynamics Questions to Reflect On - How does nostalgia affect current relationship satisfaction? - What evidence can you gather to assess past versus present reality? A Different Perspective Sometimes relationships truly improve over time; not all nostalgic feelings are inaccurate. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Imagining things](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/imagining-things/) [People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people/) [Time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/time/) ## Related quotes > [We have an obligation to imagine. It is easy to pretend that nobody can change anything, that we are in a world in which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-gaiman/we-have-an-obligation-to-imagine-it-is-easy-to-pretend-that-nobody/) [Neil Gaiman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-gaiman/) > [“i hate that its my favorite thing to watch her, because it shouldn't be. It triggers all these what-ifs in my head, and my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colleen-hoover/i-hate-that-its-my-favorite-thing-to-watch-her-because-it-shouldn-t/) [Colleen Hoover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colleen-hoover/) > [Imagining things are there that are not really there, with the green screen, is very much like theatre, when you're looking at the fourth…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-fisher/imagining-things-are-there-that-are-not-really-there-with-the-green/) [Ray Fisher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-fisher/) > [Don't believe in imagining things different from what they really are. When the Lord puts us in certain circumstances He doesn't mean for us…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lucy-maud-montgomery/don-t-believe-in-imagining-things-different-from-what-they-really-are/) [Lucy Maud Montgomery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lucy-maud-montgomery/) > [Before I go to sleep, I start imagining things that I would like to happen.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/before-i-go-to-sleep-i-start-imagining-things-that-i-would-like-to/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [But the worst of imagining things is that the time comes when you have to stop and that hurts.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/but-the-worst-of-imagining-things-is-that-the-time-comes-when-you/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“You're not the only one who copes by imagining things.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jennifer-e-smith/you-re-not-the-only-one-who-copes-by-imagining-things/) [Jennifer E. Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jennifer-e-smith/) > [Sometimes, I spend my time imagining things that will never happen in my life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/sometimes-i-spend-my-time-imagining-things-that-will-never-happen-in/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [When I was a little kid, I loved imagining things. I'd go outside and put on a cape and just imagine I was somebody…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/haley-joel-osment/when-i-was-a-little-kid-i-loved-imagining-things-i-d-go-outside-and/) [Haley Joel Osment](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/haley-joel-osment/) > [“I spend a lot of time imagining things - in fact, you could say that imagining things is my job.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sara-sheridan/i-spend-a-lot-of-time-imagining-things-in-fact-you-could-say-that/) [Sara Sheridan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sara-sheridan/) > [I have a lot of trouble with scripts. I have a lot of trouble imagining things while I'm reading them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-walken/i-have-a-lot-of-trouble-with-scripts-i-have-a-lot-of-trouble/) [Christopher Walken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-walken/) > [One reason I've never been a fan of graphic novels is because a central aspect of literature for me has always been imagining what…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-filler/one-reason-i-ve-never-been-a-fan-of-graphic-novels-is-because-a/) [Martin Filler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martin-filler/) > [I've tired of looking into the future, imagining all the things I want to have.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andrew-flintoff/i-ve-tired-of-looking-into-the-future-imagining-all-the-things-i-want/) [Andrew Flintoff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andrew-flintoff/) > [I want to support young girls who are in their 20s now and tell them: You're not just imagining things. It's tough. Everything that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bjork/i-want-to-support-young-girls-who-are-in-their-20s-now-and-tell-them/) [Bjork](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bjork/) > [Working with CGI is more like doing theater where your sort of imagining things. I didn't experience it as restrictive.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-frain/working-with-cgi-is-more-like-doing-theater-where-your-sort-of/) [James Frain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-frain/) ## More by Sarah Addison Allen > [“It feels like he's taken your heart, doesn't it?…Like he's reached in and pulled it out from you. And I bet he smiles like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-addison-allen/it-feels-like-he-s-taken-your-heart-doesn-t-it-like-he-s-reached-in/) [Sarah Addison Allen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-addison-allen/) > [“Sitting at the old patio table she’d cleared of leaves, she smiled and leaned back. The stars looked twisted in the limbs of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-addison-allen/sitting-at-the-old-patio-table-she-d-cleared-of-leaves-she-smiled-and/) [Sarah Addison Allen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-addison-allen/) > [Nothing is really broke, so it's not like I can fix it. I just have to keep trying to find what I'm looking for.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-addison-allen/nothing-is-really-broke-so-it-s-not-like-i-can-fix-it-i-just-have-to/) [Sarah Addison Allen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-addison-allen/) > [“There was such a feeling of peace around them, it was soft and pink and smelled of butter.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-addison-allen/there-was-such-a-feeling-of-peace-around-them-it-was-soft-and-pink/) [Sarah Addison Allen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-addison-allen/) > [“The two giant oaks in the front yard looked like flustered ladies caught mid-curtsy, their starched green leaf-dresses swaying in the wind.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-addison-allen/the-two-giant-oaks-in-the-front-yard-looked-like-flustered-ladies/) [Sarah Addison Allen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-addison-allen/) > [Men. You can't live with them, you can't shoot them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-addison-allen/men-you-can-t-live-with-them-you-can-t-shoot-them/) [Sarah Addison Allen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-addison-allen/) > [“After awhile, all the men wanted his opinion, and all the girls were in love with him. He made certain of it. Because he…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-addison-allen/after-awhile-all-the-men-wanted-his-opinion-and-all-the-girls-were-in/) [Sarah Addison Allen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-addison-allen/) > [People adapt. People change. You can grow where you're planted.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-addison-allen/people-adapt-people-change-you-can-grow-where-you-re-planted/) [Sarah Addison Allen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-addison-allen/) > [“She wasn’t sure exactly when it happened when she had realized that she could only make one of them happy. She only knew that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-addison-allen/she-wasn-t-sure-exactly-when-it-happened-when-she-had-realized-that/) [Sarah Addison Allen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-addison-allen/) > [I'll give you one day at a time, Claire. But remember, I'm thousands of days ahead already.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-addison-allen/i-ll-give-you-one-day-at-a-time-claire-but-remember-i-m-thousands-of/) [Sarah Addison Allen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-addison-allen/) > [“She opened her eyes slowly and saw that a pale lavender moth had come to a rest on the back of her hand. She…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-addison-allen/she-opened-her-eyes-slowly-and-saw-that-a-pale-lavender-moth-had-come/) [Sarah Addison Allen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-addison-allen/) > [How could someone with a life this full feel this empty?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-addison-allen/how-could-someone-with-a-life-this-full-feel-this-empty/) [Sarah Addison Allen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-addison-allen/) > [“Her life was monotonous, but it kept her out of trouble.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-addison-allen/her-life-was-monotonous-but-it-kept-her-out-of-trouble/) [Sarah Addison Allen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-addison-allen/) > [“She knew him in that way you can only know a person you remember as a child, like if you cracked away the adult…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-addison-allen/she-knew-him-in-that-way-you-can-only-know-a-person-you-remember-as-a/) [Sarah Addison Allen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-addison-allen/) > [“I like your mom," Adam said as they watched her walk away. "She's a saint." "Jake," his father called. "And that's the reason why,"…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-addison-allen/i-like-your-mom-adam-said-as-they-watched-her-walk-away-she-s-a-saint/) [Sarah Addison Allen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-addison-allen/) [Explore all 362 Sarah Addison Allen quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-addison-allen/) ## More Imagining quotes > [Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia. (...) You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-green/imagining-the-future-is-a-kind-of-nostalgia-you-spend-your-whole-life/) [John Green](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-green/) > [I was born imagining myself with an apron on, with pies cooling on the window sill and babies crying upstairs. I thought that all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carrie-fisher/i-was-born-imagining-myself-with-an-apron-on-with-pies-cooling-on-the/) [Carrie Fisher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carrie-fisher/) > [What I love most about Her Majesty is that she has kept hats alive in people's minds for more than 60 years. You can't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/philip-treacy/what-i-love-most-about-her-majesty-is-that-she-has-kept-hats-alive-in/) [Philip Treacy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/philip-treacy/) > [“Knowing how to make a life mean something, to wring out its worth when it was right there in one’s hands instead of just…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/deborah-reed/knowing-how-to-make-a-life-mean-something-to-wring-out-its-worth-when/) [Deborah Reed](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/deborah-reed/) > [You don't know what's coming for you in life, and you don't know what's around the corner. When you're in a great deal of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/j-h-wyman/you-don-t-know-what-s-coming-for-you-in-life-and-you-don-t-know-what/) [J.H. Wyman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/j-h-wyman/) > [Once you're imagining being the main character, and you're having the conversations and actually being there, the magic in fiction writing takes over.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/will-hobbs/once-you-re-imagining-being-the-main-character-and-you-re-having-the/) [Will Hobbs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/will-hobbs/) > [Sometimes we get through adversity only by imagining what the world might be like if our dreams should ever come true.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arthur-golden/sometimes-we-get-through-adversity-only-by-imagining-what-the-world/) [Arthur Golden](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arthur-golden/) > [“Maybe by imagining these futures we can make them real, and maybe not, but either way we must imagine them.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-green/maybe-by-imagining-these-futures-we-can-make-them-real-and-maybe-not/) [John Green](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-green/) > [My imagination is more tweaked by imagining the lives of the people who were there before us. I don't need to give myself the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gillian-flynn/my-imagination-is-more-tweaked-by-imagining-the-lives-of-the-people/) [Gillian Flynn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gillian-flynn/) > [“I was imagining the most bizarre things befalling you.” “Did they include a six-hundred-pound ice bear and a pirate poet?” “No…” “Then they weren’t…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lois-mcmaster-bujold/i-was-imagining-the-most-bizarre-things-befalling-you-did-they/) [Lois McMaster Bujold](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lois-mcmaster-bujold/) > [On 'The Messenger,' just imagining playing the part of a soldier in that movie was kind of hard for me. And in 'Rampart,' the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/woody-harrelson/on-the-messenger-just-imagining-playing-the-part-of-a-soldier-in-that/) [Woody Harrelson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/woody-harrelson/) > [“eighteenth-century Urdu poet Mir: It’s just your imagining that There’s a feeble body inside my clothes; In fact, there is nothing there But a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/shamsur-rahman-faruqi/eighteenth-century-urdu-poet-mir-it-s-just-your-imagining-that-there/) [Shamsur Rahman Faruqi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/shamsur-rahman-faruqi/) > [Eventually, when I got the 'Meadowland' script, I saw something in it that made me think I could make something special out of it,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/reed-morano/eventually-when-i-got-the-meadowland-script-i-saw-something-in-it/) [Reed Morano](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/reed-morano/) > [Think about where does this stand in the experience continuum that you've been imagining, where the world's going to go.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hosain-rahman/think-about-where-does-this-stand-in-the-experience-continuum-that/) [Hosain Rahman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hosain-rahman/) > [I like to think that location, travel, etc, is a launching point for purely imagining.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/zach-condon/i-like-to-think-that-location-travel-etc-is-a-launching-point-for/) [Zach Condon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/zach-condon/) Browse all 293 Imagining quotes ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Sometimes people who had been together for a long time got to imagining that things used to be better, even when they weren't.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sarah Addison Allen" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-addison-allen/sometimes-people-who-had-been-together-for-a-long-time-got-to/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Imagining" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-addison-allen/sometimes-people-who-had-been-together-for-a-long-time-got-to/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d57/sarah-addison-allen-810_imagining_sometimes-people-who-had-been-together-f_9366.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d57/sarah-addison-allen-810_imagining_sometimes-people-who-had-been-together-f_9366.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d57/sarah-addison-allen-810_imagining_sometimes-people-who-had-been-together-f_9366.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Sometimes people who had been together for a long time got to imagining that things used to be better, even…” — Sarah Addison Allen", "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": "Sarah Addison Allen", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sarah-addison-allen/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Sometimes people who had been together...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-addison-allen/sometimes-people-who-had-been-together-for-a-long-time-got-to/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sarah-addison-allen/sometimes-people-who-had-been-together-for-a-long-time-got-to/#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 } } ] } ```