When we have nothing to worry about we are not doing much, and not doing much may supply us with plenty of future worries.
—Chinese Proverb
We can’t always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
You can be cautious about the future but not the past.
—Chinese Proverb
There are many methods for predicting the future. For example, you can read horoscopes, tea leaves, tarot cards, or crystal balls. Collectively, these methods are known as “nutty methods.” Or you can put well-researched facts into sophisticated computer models, more commonly referred to as “a complete waste of time.”
—Scott Adams (b.1957) American Cartoonist
The man of wisdom is never in two minds about right and wrong; the man of benevolence never worries about the future; the man of courage is never afraid.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Show me someone content with mediocrity and I’ll show you someone destined for failure.
—Johnnetta B. Cole (b.1936) American Academic, Museum Director
The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.
—C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) Irish-British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
We steal if we touch tomorrow. It is God’s.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
The future is purchased by the present.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
You don’t just stumble into the future. You create your own future.
—Roger B. Smith (1925–2007) American Businessman
Salvation of the Dawn
Look to this day,
For it is life,
The very life of life.
In its brief course lie all the truths
And realities of your existence;
The bliss of growth
The glory of action, and
The splendor of beauty;
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision,
But today well lived makes
Every yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day.
Such is the salvation of the dawn.
—The Bhagavad Gita Hindu Scripture
Those who are unwilling to invest in the future haven’t earned one.
—Harold Warren Lewis
In its knowledges light, we must think and act not only for the moment but for our time. I am reminded of the great French Marshal Lyautey, who once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow-growing and would not reach maturity for a hundred years. The Marshal replied, In that case, there is no time to lose, plant it this afternoon.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
There are two days about which nobody should ever worry, and these are yesterday and tomorrow.
—Unknown
A youth is to be regarded with respect. How do you know that his future will not be equal to our present?
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.
—John M. Richardson, Jr.
The future is called “perhaps,” which is the only possible thing to call the future. And the only important thing is not to allow that to scare you.
—Tennessee Williams (1911–83) American Playwright
You can never plan the future by the past.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
I’ve read the last page of the Bible. It’s all going to turn out all right.
—Billy Graham (1918–91) American Baptist Religious Leader
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 (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
What else does anxiety about the future bring you but sorrow upon sorrow?
—Thomas a Kempis (1379–1471) German Religious Priest, Writer
My future is righteousness.
—Bob Marley (1945–81) Jamaican Musician, Singer, Songwriter
The child is not to be educated for the present, but for the remote future, and often is opposition to the immediate future.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Philosopher
People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.
—F. Matthias Alexander (1869–1955) Australian Actor, Educationalist
How happy the station which every moment furnishes opportunities of doing good to thousands!—How dangerous that which every moment exposes to the injuring of millions.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
I have always sought to guide the future— but it is very lonely sometimes trying to play God.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
Some new machinery with adequate powers must be created now if our fine phrases and noble sentiments are to have substance and meaning for our children.
—J. William Fulbright (1905–95) American Politician
If men could foresee the future, they would still behave as they do now.
—Russian Proverb
Everything that looks to the future elevates human nature; for life is never so low or so little as when occupied with the present.
—Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–38) English Poet, Novelist
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