Past Quotes
Think of your forefathers! Think of your posterity.Past
Adams, John
1735-1826 Second President of the USA
Nothing is improbable until it moves into past tense.
Past
Ade, George
1866-1944 American Humorist Playwright
It is one thing to learn about the past; it is another to wallow in it.
Past
Auchincloss, Kenneth
One must always maintain one s connection to the past and yet ceaselessly pull away from it. To remain in touch with the past requires a love of memory. To remain in touch with the past requires a constant imaginative effort.
Past
Bachelard, Gaston
1884-1962 French Scientist Philosopher Literary Theorist
Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time.
Past
Bacon, Francis
1561-1626 British Philosopher Essayist Statesman
There is a way to look at the past. Don t hide from it. It will not catch you -- if you don t repeat it.
Past
Bailey, Pearl
1918-1990 American Vocalist Movie and Stage Actress
Nostalgia is a seductive liar.
Past
Ball, George W.
1909-1991 American Politician
The past should be a springboard, not a hammock.
Past
Ball, Ivern
I cannot sing the old songs, Or dream those dreams again,
Past
Barnard, Charlotte
A safe but sometimes chilly way of recalling the past is to force open a crammed drawer. If you are searching for anything in particular you don t find it, but something falls out at the back that is often more interesting.
Past
Barrie, Sir James M.
1860-1937 British Playwright
As lousy as things are now, tomorrow they will be somebody s good old days.
Past
Barzan, Gerald
The true picture of the past flits by. The past can be seized only as an image which flashes up at the instant when it can be recognized and is never seen again.
Past
Benjamin, Walter
1982-1940 German Critic Philosopher
The past grows gradually around one, like a placenta for dying.
Past
Berger, John
1926 British Actor Critic
The present contains nothing more than the past, and what is found in the effect was already in the cause.
Past
Bergson, Henri L.
1859-1941 French Philosopher
Many are always praising the by-gone time, for it is natural that the old should extol the days of their youth; the weak, the time of their strength; the sick, the season of their vigor; and the disappointed, the spring-tide of their hopes.
Past
Bingham, Caleb
1811-1879 American Painter
Yesterday is a canceled check: Forget it. Tomorrow is a promissory note: Don t count on it. Today is ready cash: Use it!
Past
Bliss, Edwin C.
American Author
If you are carrying strong feelings about something that happened in your past, they may hinder your ability to live in the present.
Past
Brown, Les
1945 American Speaker Author Trainer Motivator Lecturer
The investor of today does not profit from yesterday s growth.
Past
Buffett, Warren
1930 American Investment Entrepreneur
Your past is important, but it is not nearly as important to your present as the way you see your future.
Past
Campolo, Tony
American Sociologist Theologian
The past is all holy to us; the dead are all holy; even they that were wicked when alive.
Past
Carlyle, Thomas
1795-1881 Scottish Philosopher Author
All the king s horses and all the king s men can t put the past together again. So let s remember: Don t try to saw sawdust.
Past
Carnegie, Dale
1888-1955 American Author Trainer
If you re still hanging onto a dead dream of yesterday, laying flowers on its grave by the hour, you cannot be planting the seeds for a new dream to grow today.
Past
Chapman, Joyce
American Author
I love my past, I love my present. I am not ashamed of what I have had, and I am not sad because I no longer have it.
Past
Colette, Sidonie Gabrielle
1873-1954 French Author
Mr. Meant-to has a friend, his name is Didn t-Do. Have you met them? They live together in a house called Never-Win. And I am told that it is haunted by the Ghost of Might-have-Been.
Past
Collins, Marva
African-American educator
To look back to antiquity is one thing, to go back to it is another.
Past
Colton, Charles Caleb
1780-1832 British Sportsman Writer
Study the past if you would divine the future.
Past
Confucius
BC 551-479 Chinese Ethical Teacher Philosopher
May you look back on the past with as much pleasure as you look forward to the future.
Past
Dickson, Paul
We are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind s door at 4am of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget.
Past
Didion, Joan
1934 American Essayist
We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and the future.
Past
Douglass, Frederick
c1817-1895 American Abolitionist Journalist
The past always looks better than it was because it isn t here.
Past
Dunne, Finley Peter
1867-1936 American Journalist Humorist
The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.
Past
Einstein, Albert
1879-1955 German-born American Physicist
The free world must not prove itself worthy of its own past.
Past
Eisenhower, Dwight D.
1890-1969 Thirty-fourth President of the USA
With memory set smarting like a reopened wound, a man s past is not simply a dead history, an outworn preparation of the present: it is not a repented error shaken loose from the life: it is a still quivering part of himself, bringing shudders and bitter flavors and the tinglings of a merited shame.
Past
Eliot, George
1819-1880 British Novelist
Only by acceptance of the past, can you alter it.
Past
Eliot, T. S.
1888-1965 American-born British Poet Critic
The past but lives in written words: a thousand ages were blank if books had not evoked their ghosts, and kept the pale unbodied shades to warn us from fleshless lips.
Past
FeNelon, Francois
1651-1715 French Writer
The historian looks backward. In the end he also believes backward.
Past
Fredrich
It is not the literal past, the facts of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language.
Past
Friel, Brian
1929 Irish Playwright Author
To design the future effectively, you must first let go of your past.
Past
Givens, Charles J.
American Businessman Author Trainer
There is no past that we can bring back by longing for it. There is only an eternally new now that builds and creates itself out of the Best as the past withdraws.
Past
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von
1749-1832 German Poet Dramatist Novelist
Look to the past for guidance into the future.
Past
Goodkin, Robert Jacob
In the maxim of the past you cannot go anywhere.
Past
Gorky, Maxim
1868-1936 Russian Novelist
I never look back, I look forward.
Past
Graf, Steffi
1969 German Tennis Player
We live in a world where amnesia is the most wished-for state. When did history become a bad word?
Past
Guare, John
1938 American Playwright
The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.
Past
Hartley, Leslie P.
1895-1972 British Author
Every man is his own ancestor, and every man his own heir. He devises his own fortune, and he inherits his own past.
Past
Hedge, Francis Herbert
1846-1924 British Philosopher
If the only new thing we have to offer is an improved version of the past, then today can only be inferior to yesterday. Hypnotized by images of the past, we risk losing all capacity for creative change.
Past
Hewison, Robert
1943 British Cultural Historian
If the past cannot teach the present and the father cannot teach the son, then history need not have bothered to go on, and the world has wasted a great deal of time.
Past
Hoban, Russell
1925 American Author
Clogged with yesterday s excess, the body drags the mind down with it.
Past
Horace
BC 65-8 Italian Poet
Nothing changes more constantly than the past; for the past that influences our lives does not consist of what actually happened, but of what men believe happened.
Past
Johnson, Gerald W.
1890-1980 American Author
The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.
Past
King Jr. Martin Luther
1929-1968 American Black Leader Nobel Prize Winner 1964
The past, though it cannot be relived, can always be repaired.
Past
La Farge, John
To be able to look back upon one s past life with satisfaction is to live twice.
Past
Martial, Marcus Valerius
40-104 Latin poet and epigrammatist
What you ve done becomes the judge of what you re going to do especially in other people s minds. When you re traveling, you are what you are. People don t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.
Past
Moon, William Least Heat
Man... cannot learn to forget, but hangs on the past: however far or fast he runs, that chain runs with him.
Past
Nietzsche, Friedrich
1844-1900 German Philosopher
Because men really respect only that which was founded of old and has developed slowly, he who wants to live on after his death must take care not only of his posterity but even more of his past.
Past
Nietzsche, Friedrich
1844-1900 German Philosopher
Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.
Past
Orwell, George
1903-1950 British Author Animal Farm
They spend their time looking forward to the past.
Past
Osborne, John
1929 British Playwright
If you re going to be able to look back on something and laugh about it, you might as well laugh about it now.
Past
Osmond, Marie
The good of other times let people state; I think it lucky I was born so late.
Past
Ovid
BC 43-18 AD Roman Poet
Some are so very studious of learning what was done by the ancients that they know not how to live with the moderns.
Past
Penn, William
1644-1718 British Religious Leader Founder of Pennsylvania
We do NOT know the past in chronological sequence. It may be convenient to lay it out anesthetized on the table with dates pasted on here and there, but what we know we know by ripples and spirals eddying out from us and from our own time.
Past
Pound, Ezra
1885-1972 American Poet Critic
The moments of the past do not remain still; they retain in our memory the motion which drew them towards the future, towards a future which has itself become the past, and draw us on in their train.
Past
Proust, Marcel
1871-1922 French Novelist
There is nothing new, but what has become antiquated.
Past
Proverb, French
Sayings of French Origin
Nothing is as new as something which as been long forgotten.
Past
Proverb, German
Sayings of German Origin
Don t brood on the past, but don t forget it either.
Past
Raddal, Thomas H.
Who so desireth to know what will be hereafter, let him think of what is past, for the world hath ever been in a circular revolution; whatsoever is now, was heretofore; and things past or present, are no other than such as shall be again: Redit orbis in orbem.
Past
Raleigh, Sir Walter
1552-1618 British Courtier Navigator Writer
While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.
Past
Reagan, Ronald
1911 Fortieth President of the USA Actor
Every journey into the past is complicated by delusions, false memories, false namings of real events.
Past
Rich, Adrienne
1929 American Poet
The past does not equal the future.
Past
Robbins, Anthony
1960 American Author Speaker Peak Performance Expert / Consultant
I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes, so live not in your yesterdays, no just for tomorrow, but in the here and now. Keep moving and forget the post mortems; and remember, no one can get the jump on the future.
Past
Sandburg, Carl
1878-1967 American Poet
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Past
Santayana, George
1863-1952 American Philosopher Poet
Living in the past has one thing going for it; it s cheaper!
Past
Saying
Always look at what you have left. Never look at what you have lost.
Past
Schuller, Robert H.
1926 American Minister (Crystal Cathedral) Author Social Leader
Look back, and smile at perils past.
Past
Scott, Sir Walter
1771-1832 British Novelist Poet
Things without remedy, should be without regard; what is done, is done.
Past
Shakespeare, William
1564-1616 British Poet Playwright Actor
We have seen better days.
Past
Shakespeare, William
1564-1616 British Poet Playwright Actor
What is past is prologue.
Past
Shakespeare, William
1564-1616 British Poet Playwright Actor
Fearfulness, contrary to all other vices, maketh a man think the better of another, the worse of himself.
Past
Sidney, Sir Philip
1554-1586 British Author Courtier
Nostalgia isn t what it used to be.
Past
Signoret, Simone
1921 French Film Actor
The past itself, as historical change continues to accelerate, has become the most surreal of subjects --making it possible... to see a new beauty in what is vanishing.
Past
Sontag, Susan
1933 American Essayist
It is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past. Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past or of a past borrowed from other cultures. It tests its sense of identity, of regress or new achievement against that past.
Past
Steiner, George
1929 French-born American Critic Novelist
You must never regret what might have been. The past that did not happen is as hidden from us as the future we cannot see.
Past
Stern, Richard Martin
The next day is never so good as the day before.
Past
Syrus, Publilius
1st Century BC Roman Writer
Posterity will pay everyone their due.
Past
Tacitus, Publius Cornelius
55-117 AD Roman Historian
The function of posterity is to look after itself.
Past
Thomas, Dylan
1914-1953 Welsh Poet
The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet.
Past
Thomas, Edward
A lot of people go through life like they are rowing a boat. They look at where they have been (the PAST) rather than where they are going (the FUTURE).
Past
Unknown, Source
It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory.
Past
Unknown, Source
If you look back too much, you will soon be headed that way
Past
Unknown, Source
If you must cry over spilled milk then please try to condense it
Past
Unknown, Source
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Past
Unknown, Source
It s very expressive of myself. I just lump everything in a great heap which I have labeled the past, and, having thus emptied this deep reservoir that was once myself, I am ready to continue.
Past
Unknown, Source
The beauty of the past is that it is the past. The beauty of the now is to know it. The beauty of the future is to see where one is going.
Past
Unknown, Source
The rewards in life go to those who are willing to give up the past
Past
Unknown, Source
Losers live in the past. Winners learn from the past and enjoy working in the present toward the future.
Past
Waitley, Denis
1933 American Author Speaker Trainer Peak Performance Expert
The past is only the present become invisible and mute; and because it is invisible and mute, its memorized glances and its murmurs are infinitely precious. We are tomorrow s past.
Past
Webb, Mary
1881-1927 British Novelist
The past is at least secure.
Past
Webster, Daniel
1782-1852 American Lawyer Statesman
The destruction of the past is perhaps the greatest of all crimes.
Past
Weil, Simone
1910-1943 French Philosopher Mystic
The people who get into trouble in our company are those who carry around the anchor of the past.
Past
Welch, John
1935 American Businessman Chairman of General Electric
The Past -- the dark unfathomed retrospect! The teeming gulf --the sleepers and the shadows! The past! the infinite greatness of the past! For what is the present after all but a growth out of the past?
Past
Whitman, Walt
1819-1892 American Poet
One s past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged.
Past
Wilde, Oscar
1856-1900 British Author Wit
Those who do remember it will find new ways to screw it up.
Past
Wolfe, Charles
That though the radiance which was once so bright be now forever taken from my sight. Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower. We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind.
Past
Wordsworth, William
1770-1850 British Poet
It s linkage I m talking about, and harmonies and structures, And all the various things that lock our wrists to the past.
Past
Wright, Charles