Full Idea
Experience is only possible with the help of memory; memory is only possible by virtue of an abbreviation of an intellectual event as a sign.
Gist of Idea
Memory is essential, and is only possible by means of abbreviation signs
Source
Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1885-86 [1886], 34[249])
Book Reference
Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Fragments from 1885-86 (v 16)', ed/tr. Del Caro,Adrian [Stanford 2020], p.74
A Reaction
My memory of a town is not formed as a sign, but as a bunch of miscellaneous fragments about it. I think mental files gives a better account of this than do 'signs'.