Past Quotes
To state the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust.John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Never let a stain from the past put a mark on your future.Jillian Graham, Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul
Whoso neglects learning in his youth, Loses the past and is dead for the future.Euripides, Phrixus
Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.Charles Dickens
Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
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
The first recipe for happiness is Avoid too lengthy meditation on the past.Andr Maurois
Children have neither a past nor a future. Thus they enjoy the present - - which seldom happens to us.La Bruyere
Study the past if you would define the future.Confucius
God cannot alter the past, but historians can.Samuel Butle
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
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
Rash indeed is he who reckons on the morrow, or haply on days beyond it; for tomorrow is not, until today is past.Sophocles, Trachiniae
Leaders are the ones who keep faith with the past, keep step with the present and keep the promise to posterity.Harold J. Seymore
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.Jean De La Bruyere
I say that democracy can never prove itself beyond cavil, until it founds and luxuriantly grows its own forms of art, poems, schools, theology, displacing all that exists, or that has been produced anywhere in the past, under opposite influences.Walt Whitman
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
A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.Sidney J. Harris
Far better to think historically, to remember the lessons of the past. Thus, far better to conceive of power as consisting in part of the knowledge of when not to use all the power you have. Far better to be one who knows that if you reserve the power not to use all your power, you will lead others far more successfully and well.A. Bartlett Giamatti, President of Yale University
Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.George Santayana
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
I think we agree, the past is over.George W. Bush, On his meeting with John McCain, Dallas Morning News, May 10, 2000
One problem with gazing too frequently into the past is that we may turn around to find the future has run out on us.Michael Cibenko
Every advantage in the past is judged in the light of the final issue.Demosthenes, First Olynthiac
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
People spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding excuses for not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy putting themselves on the line, growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives.J. Michael Straczynski
Penicillin was indeed the product of accidental discovery, but the discovery was made, and the knowledge developed, because certain scientists had definite goals in mind. Chance, Pastuer wrote, favors only the prepared mind. The mind must be prepared not only by scientific training and technological know - How, but also by the awareness of social needs.Saturday Review
The mind of man is capable of anything - - Because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future.Joseph Conrad
The President seems to extend executive privilege way out past the atmosphere. What he says is executive privilege is nothing but executive poppycock.Sam Ervin
It is past all controversy that what costs dearest is, and ought to be, most valued.Miguel de Cervantes
We must never allow the future to be weighed down by memory. For children have no past, and that is the whole secret of the magical innocence of their smiles.Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
In order to be utterly happy the only thing necessary is to refrain from comparing this moment with other moments in the past, which I often did not fully enjoy because I was comparing them with other moments of the future.Andr Gide
Events in the past may be roughly divided into those which probably never happened and those which do not matter.William Ralph Inge
Gratitude is born in hearts that take time to count up past mercies.Charles E. Jefferson
You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present.Jan Glidewell
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
