Past Quotes
The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past.Robertson Davies, "A Voice from the Attic", 1960
Geschichte ist... ein Dialog zwischen Gegenwart und Vergangenheit. re - Transl.: History is... a dialogue between the present and the past.Edward Hallet Carr, Was ist Geschichte?, S. 54
The past is a guide post, not a hitching post.L. Thomas Holdcroft
I have had enough experience in all my years, and have read enough of the past, to know that advice to grandchildren is usually wasted.Harry S Truman
Forgiveness means letting go of the past.Gerald Jampolsky
History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.Napoleon Bonaparte
Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests.Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
It is because modern education is so seldom inspired by a great hope that it so seldom achieves great results. The wish to preserve the past rather that the hope of creating the future dominates the minds of those who control the teaching of the young.Bertrand Russell
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
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.John Fitzgerald Kennedy
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
Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present - - which seldom happens to us.La Bruyere
The first recipe for happiness is Avoid too lengthy meditation on the past.Andr Maurois
We do not live to extenuate the miseries of the past nor to accept as incurable those of the present.Fairfield Osborne
It is past all controversy that what costs dearest is, and ought to be, most valued.Miguel de Cervantes
Man spends his life in reasoning on the past, in complaining of the present, in fearing future.Antoine Rivarol
Show us a man who never makes a mistake and we will show you a man who never makes anything. The capacity for occasional blundering is inseparable from the capacity to bring things to pass. The only men who are past the danger of making mistakes are the men who sleep at Greenwood.H. L. Wayland
A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today - - And in fact we have forgotten.Euripides
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.Russell Hoban
History repeats itself and history never repeats itself are about equally trueWe never know enough about the infinitely complex circumstances of any past event to prophesy the future by analogy.George Macaulay Trevelyan
Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils but present evils triumph over it.La Rochefoucauld
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 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
The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.L. P. Hartley, The Go - Between
The superior man acquaints himself with many sayings of antiquity and many deeds of the past, in order to strengthen his character thereby.I Ching
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
Over the past ten years, for the first time, intelligence had become socially correct for girls.Tom Wolfe, "Bonfire of the Vanities".
The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.Buddha
The difference between God and the historians consists above all in the fact that God cannot alter the past.Samuel Butler, 1835 - 1902
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone Is the next way to draw new mischief on.William Shakespeare
So different are the colours of life, as we look forward to the future, or backward to the past and so different the opinions and sentiments which this contrariety of appearance naturally produces, that the conversation of the old and young ends generally with contempt or pity on either side.Victor Hugo
As long as anyone believes that his ideal and purpose is outside him, that it is above the clouds, in the past or in the future, he will go outside himself and seek fulfillment where it cannot be found. He will look for solutions and answers at every point except where they can be found - - In himself.Erich Frohm
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.Susan Sontag
Be positive in addressing the envelope to your future, For enclosed are your efforts from the past. Be certain of the postage and double check what class.Unknown
Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.Thich Nhat Hanh
The ability to think straight, some knowledge of the past, some vision of the future, some skill to do useful service, some urge to fit that service into the well - Being of the community - These are the most vital things education must try to produce.Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve
It is difficult to live in the present, ridiculous to live in the future, and impossible to live in the past. Nothing is as far away as one minute ago.Jim Bishop
