Just do your best today and tomorrow will come … tomorrow’s going to be a busy day, a happy day.
—Helen Boehm (1920–2010) American Entrepreneur, Author
I had to learn to forgive myself, not to judge, but to learn from the past. They showed me how vital it is to accept, be truthful, and love myself. So I could do the same with others.
—Marlo Morgan (1937–98) American Novelist, Author
If you must cry over spilled milk then please try to condense it
—Unknown
When the danger is past God is cheated.
—Italian Proverb
I know the past, and thence I will essay to glean a warning for the future, so that man may profit by his errors, and derive experience from his folly.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
Man is a history-making creature who can neither repeat his past nor leave it behind.
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist
We live in the present, we dream of the future, but we learn eternal truths from the past.
—Soong Mei-ling (1898–2003) First Lady of the Republic of China
Clogged with yesterday’s excess, the body drags the mind down with it.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
Each had his past shut in him like the leaves of a book known to him by heart; and his friends could only read the title, James Spalding, or Charles Budgeon, and the passengers going the opposite way could read nothing at all—save “a man with a red moustache,” “a young man in gray smoking a pipe.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
The good old days were never that good, believe me. The good new days are today, and better days are coming tomorrow. Our greatest songs are still unsung.
—Hubert Humphrey (1911–78) American Head of State, Politician
It is not the literal past, the “facts” of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language.
—Brian Friel (1929–2015) Irish Dramatist, Short Story Writer
One must be thrust out of a finished cycle in life, and that leap is the most difficult to make—to part with one’s faith, one’s love, when one would prefer to renew the faith and recreate the passion.
—Anais Nin (1903–77) French-American Essayist
The past is but the beginning of a beginning, and all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
To look back to antiquity is one thing, to go back to it is another.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Live today, forget the past.
—Greek Proverb
The biggest thing in today’s sorrow is the memory of yesterday’s joy.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
Study the past, if you would define the future.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
The past is a guidepost, not a hitching post.
—Thomas L. Holdcroft
Don’t look back. Something may be gaining on you.
—Satchel Paige (1906–82) American Baseball Player
The past always looks better than it was; it’s only pleasant because it isn’t here.
—Finley Peter Dunne (1867–1936) American Author, Writer, Humorist
Living in the moment means letting go of the past and not waiting for the future. It means living your life consciously, aware that each moment you breathe is a gift.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
God cannot alter the past, that is why he is obliged to connive at the existence of historians.
—Samuel Butler
The beauty of the past is that it is the past. The beauty of the now is to know it. The beauty of the future is to see where one is going.
—Indian Proverb
Once you uncover the history of this pattern and trace its roots, you will see that your reaction in the present moment is really a reaction from the past, a shadow character’s attempt to protect you from reexperiencing an old emotional wound, which instead sabotages you in the present.
—Connie Zweig (b.1949) American Minister, Columnist, Psychotherapist
Nothing impresses the mind with a deeper feeling of loneliness than to tread the silent and deserted scene of former flow and pageant.
—Washington Irving (1783–1859) American Essayist, Biographer, Historian
While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
It’s very expressive of myself. I just lump everything in a great heap which I have labeled “the past,” and, having thus emptied this deep reservoir that was once myself, I am ready to continue.
—Unknown
Here’s to the past. Thank God it’s past.
—Unknown
The investor of today does not profit from yesterday’s growth.
—Warren Buffett (b.1930) American Investor
What is past is prologue.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
If you look back too much, you will soon be headed that way
—Unknown
The past grows gradually around one, like a placenta for dying.
—John Berger (1926–2017) English Art Critic, Novelist
The past is at least secure.
—Daniel Webster (1782–1852) American Statesman, Lawyer
It’s a pleasure to share one’s memories. Everything remembered is dear, endearing, touching, precious. At least the past is safe—though we didn’t know it at the time. We know it now because it’s in the past, because we have survived.
—Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American Writer, Philosopher
To design the future effectively, you must first let go of your past.
—Charles J. Givens (1941–98) American Self-Help Writer
A safe but sometimes chilly way of recalling the past is to force open a crammed drawer. If you are searching for anything in particular you don’t find it, but something falls out at the back that is often more interesting.
—J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) Scottish Novelist, Dramatist
Yesterday is a cancelled check; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is the only cash you have—so spend it wisely.
—Unknown
What’s gone and past help, should be past grief.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The cultural influences in our country are like the floo floo bird. I am referring to the peculiar and especial bird who always flew backward. To keep the wind out of its eyes? No. Just because it didn’t give a darn where it was going, but just had to see where it had been.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put the past together again. So let’s remember: Don’t try to saw sawdust.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
I’ve come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
God has no power over the past except to cover it with oblivion.
—Pliny the Elder (23–79CE) Roman Statesman, Scholar
Things without remedy, should be without regard; what is done, is done.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
I never look back, I look forward.
—Steffi Graf (b.1969) German Tennis Player, Philanthropist
We cannot fling ourselves into the blank future; we can only call up images from the past. This being so, the important principle follows, that how many images we have largely depends on how much past we have.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
The past is a work of art, free of irrelevancies and loose ends.
—Max Beerbohm (1872–1956) British Essayist, Caricaturist, Novelist
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?
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist, American, Poet, Essayist, Journalist
No matter her past, when a chambermaid marries a lord she becomes a lady.
—Latin Proverb
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.
—Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962) French Philosopher, Psychoanalyst, Poet
The past is not a package one can lay away.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet