Past Quotes
The Past: Our cradle, not our prison; there is danger as well as appeal in its glamour. The past is for inspiration, not imitation, for continuation, not repetition.Israel Zangwill
I must not fear. Fear is the mind - Killer. Fear is the little - Death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.Frank Herbert, Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear, "Dune".
Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.Charles Dickens
The only use of a knowledge of the past is to equip us for the present. The present contains all that there is. It is holy ground; for it is the past, and it is the future.Alfred North Whitehead
The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.George Eliot
The past is certain, the future obscure.Thales
For the first time in the history of our country the majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years.James Earl Jimmy Carter, Jr.
A garden is evidence of faith. It links us with all the misty figures of the past who also planted and were nourished by the fruits of their planting.Gladys Tabe
I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.Alan Watts
We think very little of time present; we anticipate the future, as being too slow, and with a view to hasten it onward, we recall the past to stay it as too swiftly gone. We are so thoughtless, that we thus wander through the hours which are not here, regardless only of the moment that is actually our own.Blaise Pascal
The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.Rene Descartes
A preoccupation with the future not only prevents us from seeing the present as it is but often prompts us to rearrange the past.Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind, 1954
I know of no way to judge the future but by the past.Patrick Henry
Memory is a giggling sprite and will not be tamed. She takes flight the moment the present becomes the past.Real Live Preacher, weblog, 04 - 29 - 04
We do not live to extenuate the miseries of the past nor to accept as incurable those of the present.Fairfield Osborne
The first recipe for happiness is Avoid too lengthy meditation on the past.Andr Maurois
To break a promise is to deny the reality of the past Therefore it is to deny the hope of a real future....Ursala Lequin
But the only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.Arthur C. Clarke
Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present - - which seldom happens to us.La Bruyere
Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. We see our past achievements as the end results of a clean forward thrust, and our present difficulties as signs of decline and decay.Eric Hoffe
All of us, whether guilty or not, whether old or young, must accept the past. ... It is not a case of coming to terms with the past. That is not possible. It cannot be subsequently modified or undone.Richard von Weizscke
Nothing is quite so wretchedly corrupt as an aristocracy which has lost its power but kept its wealth and which still has endless leisure to devote to nothing but banal enjoyments. All its great thoughts and passionate energy are things of the past, and nothing but a host of petty, gnawing vices now cling to it like worms to a corpse.Alexis Charles Henri Clrel de Tocqueville
We ought not to look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dear - Brought experience.George Washington
Look not mournfully into the Past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the Present. In is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy Future, without fear, and a manly heart.Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Nothing changes more constantly than the past; for the past that influences our lives does not consist of what happened, but of what men believe happened.Gerald W. Johnston
For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.Sir Winston Churchill
In short, the building becomes a theatrical demonstration of its functional ideal. In this romanticism, High - Tech architecture is, of course, no different in spirit - If totally different in form - From all the romantic architecture of the past.Dan Cruickshank
Life is divided into three terms - That which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present to live better in the future.William Wordsworth
Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.Francois De La Rochefoucauld
Sick I am of idle words, past all reconciling, Words that weary and perplex and pander and conceal, Wake the sounds that cannot lie, for all their sweet beguiling; The language one need fathom not, but only hear and feel.George Du Maurie
Virtue extends our days he live two lives who relives his past with pleasure.Marcus Valerius Martialis
Remember your past mistakes just long enough to profit by them.Dan McKinnon
The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.George Eliot
It is past all controversy that what costs dearest is, and ought to be, most valued.Miguel de Cervantes
Defining and analyzing humor is a pastime of humorless people.Robert Benchley
Throwing a fastball to Henry Aaron is like trying to sneak the sun past a rooster.Curt Simmons
The difference between God and the historians consists above all in the fact that God cannot alter the past.Samuel Butler, 1835 - 1902
