Motivational Quotes

Past

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.

- Raleigh, Sir Walter

Best Quotes about Past

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.

Sandburg, Carl

What is past is prologue.

Shakespeare, William

It is one thing to learn about the past; it is another to wallow in it.

Auchincloss, Kenneth

There is nothing new, but what has become antiquated.

Proverb, French

The past always looks better than it was because it isn't here.

Dunne, Finley Peter

Raleigh, Sir Walter

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.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

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.

Didion, Joan

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.

Bailey, Pearl

10.

If you are carrying strong feelings about something that happened in your past, they may hinder your ability to live in the present.

Brown, Les

11.

The past should be a springboard, not a hammock.

Ball, Ivern

12.

Clogged with yesterday's excess, the body drags the mind down with it.

Horace

13.

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.

Benjamin, Walter

14.

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?

Whitman, Walt

15.

Fearfulness, contrary to all other vices, maketh a man think the better of another, the worse of himself.

Sidney, Sir Philip

16.

The destruction of the past is perhaps the greatest of all crimes.

Weil, Simone

17.

Don't brood on the past, but don't forget it either.

Raddal, Thomas H.

18.

The past, though it cannot be relived, can always be repaired.

La Farge, John

19.

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.

Bachelard, Gaston

20.

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.

Bingham, Caleb

21.

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.

Hoban, Russell

22.

Look back, and smile at perils past.

Scott, Sir Walter

23.

To be able to look back upon one's past life with satisfaction is to live twice.

Martial, Marcus Valerius

24.

In the maxim of the past you cannot go anywhere.

Gorky, Maxim

25.

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).

26.

It is not the literal past, the facts of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language.

Friel, Brian

27.

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.

Steiner, George

28.

Yesterday is a canceled check: Forget it. Tomorrow is a promissory note: Don't count on it. Today is ready cash: Use it!

Bliss, Edwin C.

29.

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.

Hewison, Robert

30.

The investor of today does not profit from yesterday's growth.

Buffett, Warren

31.

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.

Stern, Richard Martin

32.

Losers live in the past. Winners learn from the past and enjoy working in the present toward the future.

Waitley, Denis

33.

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.

34.

Only by acceptance of the past, can you alter it.

Eliot, T. S.

35.

Look to the past for guidance into the future.

Goodkin, Robert Jacob

36.

If you must cry over spilled milk then please try to condense it

37.

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.

Wordsworth, William

38.

They spend their time looking forward to the past.

Osborne, John

39.

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.

Collins, Marva

40.

Your past is important, but it is not nearly as important to your present as the way you see your future.

Campolo, Tony

41.

While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.

Reagan, Ronald

42.

Living in the past has one thing going for it; it's cheaper!

Saying

43.

As lousy as things are now, tomorrow they will be somebody's good old days.

Barzan, Gerald

44.

The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

Einstein, Albert

45.

I cannot sing the old songs, Or dream those dreams again,

Barnard, Charlotte

46.

Those who do remember it will find new ways to screw it up.

Wolfe, Charles

47.

Posterity will pay everyone their due.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

48.

Nothing is as new as something which as been long forgotten.

Proverb, German

49.

Nostalgia is a seductive liar.

Ball, George W.

50.

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.

Pound, Ezra