PAST QUOTES VI

quotations about the past

Past quote

What's past is prologue.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

The Tempest

Tags: William Shakespeare


It is discouraging to leave the past behind only to see it coming toward you like the thunderstorm which drenched you yesterday.

WILLIAM H. GASS

The Tunnel

Tags: William H. Gass


You are young ... the past is nothing to you, not even another country as it is to the old, or a nightmare as it is to the guilty.

CASSANDRA CLARE

City of Bones

Tags: Cassandra Clare


The past is what makes now like now makes tomorrow.

SAMUEL R. DELANY

Nova

Tags: Samuel R. Delany


The past is but the beginning of a beginning, and all that is or has been is but the twilight of the dawn.

H. G. WELLS

The Discovery of the Future

Tags: H. G. Wells


The past is understood as some kind of utopian ideal, once tangible as the present, then forever out of reach with the effect of passing years.

LAETITIA WILSON

"Questions at the heart of identity", The West Australian, April 1, 2016


I passionately scrutinize this past, in order to reconstruct from its scattered bits the illusion of a future.

OCTAVE MIRBEAU

The Diary of a Chambermaid

Tags: Octave Mirbeau


Learn from the past--don't wear it like a yoke around your neck.

BRIAN HERBERT & KEVIN J. ANDERSON

The Butlerian Jihad

Tags: Brian Herbert


The past grows gradually around one, like a placenta for the dying.

JOHN BERGER

And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos

Tags: John Berger


Is there any good reason why we cannot extend our multi-cultural generosity to include another dimension? That of time. The past, too, is another country. Its ghosts may look strange and frightening and slightly misshapen in body and mind, but all the more reason then, to welcome them to our shores.

MARTIN AMIS

lecture at Harvard University, January 30, 1997

Tags: Martin Amis


The past could be jettisoned ... but seeds got carried.

JOAN DIDION

Where I Was From

Tags: Joan Didion


Not heaven itself upon the past has power;
But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.

JOHN DRYDEN

Imitation of Horace

Tags: John Dryden


The past scampers like an alley cat through the present, leaving the paw prints of memories scattered helter-skelter.

CHARLES DE LINT

The Onion Girl

Tags: Charles de Lint


It is a sentimental error ... to believe that the past is dead.

JAMES BALDWIN

Notes of a Native Son

Tags: James Baldwin


The world to come must be composed of what is past. No other material is at hand.

CORMAC MCCARTHY

Cities of the Plain

Tags: Cormac McCarthy


A man who denies his past is a man who truly denies himself a future, for he refuses to know himself.

TOBSHA LEARNER

The Witch of Cologne

Tags: Tobsha Learner


Ye come and go incessant; we remain
Safe in the hallowed quiets of the past;
Be reverent, ye who flit and are forgot,
Of faith so nobly realized as this.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

The Cathedral

Tags: James Russell Lowell


When we think of the past it's the beautiful things we pick out. We want to believe it was all like that.

MARGARET ATWOOD

The Handmaid's Tale

Tags: Margaret Atwood


Men attach more or less importance to past and future events according as they are more or less engaged in action and the busy scenes of life. Those who have a fortune to make, or are in pursuit of rank and power, think little of the past, for it does not contribute greatly to their views: those who have nothing to do but to think, take nearly the same interest in the past as in the future. The contemplation of the one is as delightful and real as that of the other. The season of hope has an end; but the remembrance of it is left.

WILLIAM HAZLITT

"On the Past and Future", Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners

Tags: William Hazlitt


Sometimes we need a map of the past. It helps us to understand the present, and to plan the future.

JOSEPHINE HART

Damage

Tags: Josephine Hart