Quotes About Past

Generally speaking – which is of course always a dangerous thing to do, generally speaking – Americans revere the past only as long as there is some money in it somewhere and it doesn't mean going without air-conditioning, free parking and other essential conveniences.

Or look at the old money, with its florins and half crowns and thrupenny bits, and imagine what it was like in the days when people had to add tuppence ha'penny to one shilling four nibblings or whatever. With

Do you know," he said, "it's twenty years since you wrote Notes from a Small Island?" (This was my first book about Britain. It did awfully well there.) "Twenty years?" I replied, amazed at how much past one can accumulate without any effort at all.

past. Often a space-waster, as in this example: 'She has been a teacher at the school for the past 20 years' (Independent). In this sentence, and in countless others like it, 'the past' could be deleted without any loss of sense.

The past is a ghost, the future is a dream, and all we ever have is now.

David Thompson was … The most underrated superstar of the past thirty-five years The single biggest NBA tragedy other than Lenny Bias

And the past and the future? Nothing but an only child with two different masks.

And in the evening After the fire and the light One thing is certain: Nothing can hold back the light Time is relentless And as the past disappears We're on the verge of all things new

Let each of us examine his thoughts; he will find them wholly concerned with the past or the future. We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light is throws on our plans for the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so.

We never keep to the present. We recall the past; we anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and were trying to hurry it up, or we recall the past as if to stay its too rapid flight. We are so unwise that we wander about in times that do not belong to us, and do not think of the only one that does; so vain that we dream of times that are not and blindly flee the only one that is. The fact is the present usually hurts.

So imprudent are we that we wander in the times which are nor ours, and do not think of the only one which belongs to us; and so idle are we that we dream of those times which are no more, and thoughtlessly overlook that which alone exists.

Let each one examine his thoughts, and he will find them all occupied with the past and the future. We scarcely ever think of the present; and if we think of it, it is only to take light from it to arrange the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means; the future alone is our end. [78] So we never live, but we hope to live; and, as we are always preparing to be happy, it is inevitable we should never be so.

Sundown, yellow moon, I replay the past I know every scene by heart, they all went by so fast

You learn from a conglomeration of the incredible past - whatever experience gotten in any way whatsoever.

And how could she ever open her mouth to tell him, in the guise of reminiscing, I haven't been on a ferry in twelve years. Once upon a time I was a girl and my name was Dottie and I was seventeen and in love and I was real. I had a life that I loved and it was beautiful and the boy was beautiful and here I am again but once was enough, once is all you get to ask for, once is about all I can survive.

That set the stage for a change agent. Hillary was the past. It was that clear.

Ningú no fa la història; la història no es veu, com tampoc no es veu créixer l'herba. Nadie hace la historia; la historia no se ve, como tampoco se ve crecer la hierba

There's the life you live and the life you leave behind. But what you share with someone else - especially someone you love - that's not just how you bury your past. It's how you write your future.

Most archivists don't like surprises. That's why we work in the past.

History is simply what's behind us.

You yourself never loved; you never love! Yes, I too can love; you yourselves can tell it from the past. Is it not so?

You must fight Death himself, though he come to you in pain or in joy; by the day, or the night; in safety or in peril! On your living soul I charge that you do not die - nay nor think of death - till this great evil be past.

Poor gentleman, said Mr Segundus. Perhaps it is the age. It is not an age for magic or scholarship, is it sir? Tradesmen prosper, sailors, politicians, but not magicians. Our time is past.

Asa had a sharp understanding of the future--that is, a time when this would be past. Time was rushing through and around him, he almost heard it whistling, and this awareness rounded the world somehow and made it sweet.