PAST QUOTES IV

quotations about the past

Past quote

Keep out of the Past! for its highways
Are damp with malarial gloom;
Its gardens are sere and its forests are drear,
And everywhere moulders a tomb.
Who seeks to regain its lost pleasures,
Finds only a rose turned to dust;
And its storehouse of wonderful treasures
Are covered and coated with rust.

ELLA WHEELER WILCOX

"Keep Out of the Past"

Tags: Ella Wheeler Wilcox


We sometimes condemn the present, by praising the past; and show our contempt of what is now, by our esteem for what is no more.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Moral Maxims

Tags: François de La Rochefoucauld


It's in vain to recall the past, unless it works some influence upon the present.

CHARLES DICKENS

David Copperfield

Tags: Charles Dickens


You always romanticize the past as soon as the future begins to frighten you.

RICK REMENDER

Uncanny X-Force, No. 16, December 2011

Tags: Rick Remender


When I think over the past, I am like a person whose eyes cannot properly measure distances and is liable to think things extremely remote which on examination prove to be quite near.

ANDRE GIDE

If It Die

Tags: André Gide


Youth, hope, and love:
To build a new life on a ruined life,
To make the future fairer than the past,
And make the past appear a troubled dream.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

The Masque of Pandora

Tags: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Our most merciless enemy is our past.

MAXIM GORKY

Untimely Thoughts

Tags: Maxim Gorky


See, there's nothing wrong with the past; the past is a good thing, but that's not all there is.

PAT BENATAR

interview, AV Club, August 26, 1997

Tags: Pat Benatar


The past is such a curious creature,
To look her in the face
A transport may reward us,
Or a disgrace --

EMILY DICKINSON

"The past is such a curious creature"

Tags: Emily Dickinson


So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

The Great Gatsby

Tags: F. Scott Fitzgerald


The world is weary of the past,
Oh, might it die or rest at last!

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

Hellas

Tags: Percy Bysshe Shelley


A chorus of voices, the past alive in everything, that sea upon which the present tossed and rode.

WILLIAM GIBSON

All Tomorrow's Parties

Tags: William Gibson


Old events have modern meanings; only that survives
Of past history which finds kindred in all hearts and lives.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

"Mahmood the Image-Breaker"

Tags: James Russell Lowell


The past is gained, secure, and on record.

ROBERT BROWNING

letter to Elizabeth Barrett, March 1, 1845

Tags: Robert Browning


An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life like clay in a season of drought.

JAMES BALDWIN

The Fire Next Time

Tags: James Baldwin


Creativity and innovation always builds on the past. The past always tries to control the creativity that builds upon it. Free societies enable the future by limiting this power of the past. Ours is less and less a free society.

LAWRENCE LESSIG

keynote address at the Open Source Convention, OSCON, July 24, 2002

Tags: Lawrence Lessig


But we look ahead to the far off skies,
For the years are flying fast,
And we know that the present that round us lies
Ere the light of a few more moments dies,
Will with many loved and severed ties
Fade into the mist-veiled past.

MARTHA LAVINIA HOFFMAN

"The Beautiful Past"

Tags: Martha Lavinia Hoffman


Beyond here lies nothin'
But the mountains of the past

BOB DYLAN

"Beyond Here Lies Nothin'"

Tags: Bob Dylan


The only past which endures lies wordlessly within you.

FRANK HERBERT

God Emperor of Dune

Tags: Frank Herbert


My past is everything I failed to be.

FERNANDO PESSOA

The Book of Disquiet

Tags: Fernando Pessoa