Quotes About Present

I've been told by people I respect that flashbacks only work if they have their own narrative, but they can't be part of the present narrative.

For peace do not hope; to be just you must break it. Still work for the minute and not for the year.

I think the thing that I most appreciate now is that stereotypes involving Jewish identity activate fears of persecution that exist in the present day.

The thing that sticks to me most about theater is that because it's such an ape crazy nonstop experience, you really don't have time to think about anything else. You're just really present; you have to be, or else, you know, you can't stop the play.

I believe in a 'give us this day our daily bread' sort of thing. And what I draw from that is, I try not to stock my refrigerator for groceries for the week, cause I might not live to see the full week.

I've stopped making plans a long time back because they never work in my case. Now, I just take each day as it comes.

But I think we have to enjoy the moment, because when it stops, it stops. And I think that as long as I'm fit, I need to be on the pitch, running.

What is the biggest thing that stops people from living their lives in the present moment? Fear - and we must learn how to overcome fear.

The world, universe, God, whatever you call it, has so much more in store if you just sit back and relax and do what's right in front of you.

The flesh endures the storms of the present alone; the mind, those of the past and future as well as the present. Gluttony is a lust of the mind.

It takes a perverse determination to drain that instinctive curiosity away and make history seem just remote, dead and disconnected from our contemporary reality. Conversely, it just takes skilful storytelling to recharge that connection to make the past come alive in our present.

Buddhist mindfulness is about the present, but I also think it's about being real. Being awake to everything. Feeling like nothing can hurt you if you can look it straight on.

I just want to live each moment, but it's kind of hard to do that when you are asked to analyze yourself constantly. But it's also good in that you are forced to think about things that you don't ordinarily think about. I think it's strange.

If you're not interested in history, if you're living for the day, you need some sort of cliche hook. I certainly don't think of myself as a cult anything. It's a strange thing to even consider pursuing.

The present is not marked off from a past that it has replaced or a future that will, in turn, replace it; it rather gathers the past and future into itself, like refractions in a crystal ball. — Tim Ingold from "The Temporality of the Landscape," World Archaeology (vol. 25, no. 2)

But perhaps the greatest escapism of all is to take refuge in the domesticity of the past, the home that history and literature become, avoiding the one moment of time in which we are not at home, yet have to live: the present.

Much is said about escapism in narrative and fiction. But perhaps the greatest escapism of all is to take refuge in the domesticity of the past, the home that history and literature become, avoiding the one moment of time in which we are not at home, yet have to live: the present.

Don't you think about tomorrow, think about today instead.

To hell with tomorrow. To hell with all problems and barriers. Nothing matters but the Spectacular Now.

it's fine to live in the now. but the best thing about now is that there's another one tomorrow. i'm going to start making them count.

who cares about all the problems and barriers, nothing matters but the Spectacular Now.

Don't worry," says Ricky. "I'm sure everyone isn't bringing a present. You can just think of paying the cover charge as your gift." "What? A cover charge? Presents? What are these people, a bunch of capitalists?

Let the morrow bring on what it would, he thought, for it didn't exist. Only now could lay any claim to forever...

From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds by Daniel C. Dennett. How consciousness arises, and how much it depends on a sense of past, present, and future (plus a lot of other interesting insights).