The worst time is always the present.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
Our ignorance of history makes us libel to our own times. People have always been like this.
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–80) French Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
Only by acceptance of the past, can you alter it.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
You can never plan the future by the past.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Some of the best lessons we ever learn are learned from past mistakes. The error of the past is the wisdom and success of the future.
—Dale Turner (1917–2006) American Priest, Columnist, Epigrammist
The present contains nothing more than the past, and what is found in the effect was already in the cause.
—Henri Bergson (1859–1941) French Philosopher, Evolutionist
A man’s memory may almost become the art of continually varying and misrepresenting his past, according to his interest in the present.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
What is past is prologue.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
To be able to look back upon one’s past life with satisfaction is to live twice.
—Martial (40–104) Ancient Roman Latin Poet
The “good old times”—all times when old are good.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
The more anger towards the past you carry in your heart, the less capable you are of loving in the present.
—Barbara De Angelis (b.1951) American Self-Help Author
The past should be a springboard, not a hammock.
—Ivern Ball (1926–92) American Writer, Aphorist
There is (as I now find) no remorse for time long past, even for what may have mortified us or made us ashamed of ourselves when it was happening: there is a pleasant panoramic sense of what it all was and how it all had to be. Why, if we are not vain or snobbish, need we desire that it should have been different? The better things we missed may yet be enjoyed or attained by someone else somewhere: why isn’t that just as good? And there is no regret, either, in the sense of wishing the past to return, or missing it: it is quite real enough as it is, there at its own date and place
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
Think of your forefathers! Think of your posterity.
—John Adams (1735–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
I love my past, I love my present. I am not ashamed of what I have had, and I am not sad because I no longer have it.
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
If you must cry over spilled milk then please try to condense it
—Unknown
From the wreck of the past, which hath perish
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
The function of posterity is to look after itself.
—Dylan Thomas (1914–53) Welsh Poet, Author
To look back to antiquity is one thing, to go back to it is another.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Look back, and smile at perils past.
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
If you want to succeed in your life, remember this phrase: The past does not equal the future. Because you failed yesterday; or all day today; or a moment ago; or for the last six months; the last sixteen years; or the last fifty years of life, doesn’t mean anything…All that matters is: What are you going to do, right now?
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
Nostalgia keeps dissolving the ironic narratives in which I have contained my past.
—Mason Cooley (1927–2002) American Aphorist
Let others praise ancient times; I am glad I was born in these.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
There is no past that we can bring back by longing for it. There is only an eternally new now that builds and creates itself out of the Best as the past withdraws.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good; and thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burdens of the past.
—Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927–2014) Colombian Novelist, Short-Story Writer
The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
This strange disease of modern life, with its sick hurry, its divided aims.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
To design the future effectively, you must first let go of your past.
—Charles J. Givens (1941–98) American Self-Help Writer
With memory set smarting like a reopened wound, a man’s past is not simply a dead history, an outworn preparation of the present: it is not a repented error shaken loose from the life: it is a still quivering part of himself, bringing shudders and bitter flavors and the tinglings of a merited shame.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Study the past, if you would define the future.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
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