The past is strapped to our backs. We do not have to see it; we can always feel it.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
The past is a bucket of ashes, so live not in your yesterdays, nor 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.
—Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American Biographer, Novelist, Socialist
The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
Nothing ever gets anywhere. The earth keeps turning round and gets nowhere. The moment is the only thing that counts.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Playwright, Film Director
The one charm of the past is that it is the past.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.
—Golda Meir (1898–1978) Israeli Head of State
If you wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes. If you don’t wait for tomorrow, tomorrow comes.
—African Proverb
No man is rich enough to buy back his past.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Bring the past only if you are going to build from it.
—Domenico Cieri (b.1954) Mexican Author, Aphorist
The living moment is everything.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act. The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.
—Abraham Maslow (1908–70) American Psychologist, Academic, Humanist
We need not destroy the past. It is gone.
—John Cage (1912–92) American Composer, Philosopher, Poet, Artist
Often do the spirits of great events stride on before the events, and in today already walks tomorrow.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
I have realized that the past and the future are real illusions, that they exist only in the present, which is what there is and all that there is.
—Alan Watts (1915–73) British-American Philosopher, Author
Waste not fresh tears over old griefs.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist