Top 100 On The Past Quotes
#1. You can't go feeding your hate on the past, it's not natural.
Bryce Courtenay
#2. Nothing else mattered today. I lived within the minutes I was in - not dwelling on the past, or fearing the future. I just let the day present itself as it would, and it couldn't have been better.
Rebecca Donovan
#3. We are neither of us the people we were then. Let us look on the past only as it gives us pleasure, and to the future with confidence and hope.
P.D. James
#4. Why dwell on the past, when we have yet to write the future
P.A. Henley
#5. Don't lean on the past, learn from it and move on.
Joe Vitale
#6. Do not encumber your mind with useless thoughts. What good does it do to brood on the past or anticipate the future? Remain in the simplicity of the present moment.
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
#7. I never get hung up on the past - the memories are too negative.
Brigitte Bardot
#8. Sadie wondered if his focus on the past helped him escape the here and now.
Valerie Ormond
#9. I do not like to dwell on the past. Life is ahead of us. If we spend too much time looking backward, we can't see where we are going!
R.J. Palacio
#11. There is no creation without tradition; the 'new' is an inflection on a preceding form; novelty is always a variation on the past.
Carlos Fuentes
#12. If you worry about the future, and dwell on the past, you can't enjoy the present.
Angie Stanton
#13. To me, living in the present means being aware of your conscious choice to focus on the past, present or future - it is not necessarily having to focus on the present.
Bo Bennett
#14. May you look back on the past with as much pleasure as you look forward to the future.
Paul Dickson
#15. All the past has done is generated the you that you are now. Dwelling on the past isn't going to change anything.
Frederick Lenz
#16. One of the greatest struggles of the healing process
is to forgive both yourself and others
and to stop expending valuable energy on the past hurts.
Caroline Myss
#17. A theology that does not build on the past ignores our debt to history and naively overlooks the fact that the present is conditioned by history. A theology that relies upon the past evades the demands of the present.
Greg Nichols
#18. To imagine a new world is to live it daily, each thought, each glance, each step, each gesture, killing and recreating, death always a step in advance. To spit on the past is not enough. To proclaim the future is not enough. One must act as if the past were dead and the future unrealizable.
Henry Miller
#19. The written word is all that stands between memory and oblivion. Without books as our anchors, we are cast adrift, neither teaching nor learning. They are windows on the past, mirrors on the present, and prisms reflected all possible futures. Books are lighthouses erected on the dark sea of time.
Greg Weisman
#20. Too many people dwell on the past: the thing is to get on with life.
Zarin Mehta
#21. I'm a person who really doesn't dwell on the past.
Ronnie Lott
#22. Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the "High Priest of good things to come" (Hebrews 9:11).
Jeffrey R. Holland
#23. When you live out of your memory, you focus on the past. When you live out of your imagination, you focus on the future.
Stephen R. Covey
#24. To begin loving people today, we must close the door on the past. And that cannot happen without forgiveness! Forgive those who have hurt you - for your sake, not because they deserve it.
Rick Warren
#25. The first recipe for happiness is: avoid too lengthy meditation on the past.
Andre Maurois
#26. Every creative act draws on the past whether it pretends to or not. It draws on what it knows. There's no such thing, really, as a creative act in a vacuum.
Ada Louise Huxtable
#27. I have some stuff that I've been working on the past year or two, but I haven't put anything together into songs or anything like that. Maybe it'll turn into letters to the president, I don't really know what it'll turn into.
King Khan
#28. ... dwelling and planning is bullshit," he says. "You dwell on the past, you can't move forward. Spend too much time planning for the future and you just push yourself backwards, or you say stagnant in the same place all your life." His eyes lock on mine. "Live in the moment.
J.A. Redmerski
#29. You have trouble living in the present, so you linger on the past because you feel like you never really lived it
Ben Stiller
#30. No man can put a rope on the past and hope to snub it down. The best thing is to learn to it ride the new trails - Kilkenny
Louis L'Amour
#31. What really ruins our characters is the fact that none of us looks back over his life. We think about what we are going to do, and only rarely of that, and fail to think about what we have done, yet any plans for the future are dependent on the past.
Seneca.
#32. Credit and debt keep us fixated on the past and the future.
Mark Sundeen
#33. Our path through life is strewn with many such sad memories: and were we to brood upon them always we could not find the heart to go on bravely with our work among the living ... therefore, I will not linger on the past. I will not let any gloomy moralising intrude ...
James Joyce
#34. Your future takes precedence over your past. Focus on your future, rather than on the past.
Gary Ryan Blair
#35. I'm not sitting somewhere dwelling on the past. I'm not fretting or obsessing about something in the future.
Jennifer Aniston
#36. People shouldn't dwell on the past. It's enough to try your best in all that you're doing now.
Aya Kito
#37. Who am I to judge you on the past I bet theirs a reason for it all.
Drake
#38. Since the Renaissance, a concept called 'progress' has been baked into our society. Progress - founded on an accumulation of knowledge through experience (and in the case of science, through experiment). To build on the past rather than endlessly relive it. That's what separates us from the beasts.
Seth Shostak
#39. The challenge is to draw on the past but not be bound by it" p. 20
David Brazzeal
#40. Don't waste time on what's not important. Don't get sucked into the drama. Get on with it: don't dwell on the past. Be a big person; be generous of spirit; be the person you'd admire.
Allegra Huston
#41. Remember, planning the future and reflecting on the past are valuable exercises, but doing this throughout your day interferes with what is in front of you - your present.
Travis Bradberry
#42. Don't be so focused on the past or future situations that you overlook the beauty of the present moment that is NOW.
Excerpt from "Living in Light, Love & Truth". (Page 29).
Kasi Kaye Iliopoulos
#43. I don't have to tell you how pointless it is to dwell on the past, sweet pea.
Molly McLain
#44. I live now in solitude and am able to use my time reflecting on the past and preparing for death. I cannot put away the thought of the Indians and in my ambition I fly to the Rockies.
Rose Philippine Duchesne
#45. The society that loses its grip on the past is in danger, for it produces men who know nothing but the present, and who are not aware that life had been, and could be, different from what it is.
Aristotle.
#46. The influence of the future on the past, said Morel enthusiastically, almost inaudibly.
Adolfo Bioy Casares
#47. But a lot of our thinking is caught up in dwelling on the past, trying to control the future, generating misperceptions, and worrying about what others are thinking.
Thich Nhat Hanh
#48. Dont dwell on the past when the future smiles bright and the present is by your side
Karinush2828
#49. Elections are about the future. And the GOP will not win a campaign focused on the past.
Mark McKinnon
#50. Well, it's more like a sentence on life," he said, grinning. "I live by three rules: Don't dwell on the past, present, or future, party hard, and never fall in love. Easy.
Ada Adams
#51. Focus on the future for 50%, on the present for 40%, and on the past for 10%
Masaaki Hatsumi
#52. I have to move on now as there is no point to dwell on the past. I have a few days to refocus and get ready for the 200 meters on Friday. After this I have the 4x100-meter and a few other races before the end of the season.
Usain Bolt
#53. Dwelling on the past causes us to forfeit the power of the moment.
Shannon Tanner
#54. You can only live on the past for so long, and we kind of stretched our luck on that. We think we're on the way back, but it's just a matter of how quickly things come together. Common sense tells you it's not going to happen overnight because we're trying to catch up.
Richard Petty
#55. Becoming less focused on the past and future and not resisting the moment is how to overcome fear, physical pain, and all suffering.
Lee L Jampolsky
#56. One thing I've learned in my program is that guilt is a wasted emotion, you know? Look back on the past but don't stare.
Wally Lamb
#57. Dwelling on the past only defeated her chances for changing the future.
Francine Rivers
#58. Arbor Day is not like other holidays. Each of those reposes on the past, while Arbor Day proposes for the future.
Julius Sterling Morton
#60. If the past has uncertain effect on the present, there is no need to dwell on the past. And if the present has little effect on the future,
Alan Lightman
#61. Do not dwell on the past, do not dream of the future. Instead, focus only on the task at hand.
Siddhattha Gotama
#62. Humans are the only creatures with the ability to dive deep in the sea, fly high in the sky, send instant messages around the globe, reflect on the past, assess the present and imagine the future.
Sylvia Earle
#63. Do not pity me, Beatrice De Novo. My life has been as fate dictated, and now I am master of it. Do not waste your regret on the past.
Elizabeth Hunter
#64. The past is a ghost that haunts us. Ghosts must banished. Lingering on the past is weakness, Lord Vader.
Paul S. Kemp
#65. We must admit that history is enjoyable to a large extent because it enables us to pass judgement on the past.
Douglas Hurd
#66. We always build on the past; the past always tries to stop us.
Lawrence Lessig
#67. The more I reflect and look back on the past, the more vividly do I feel my limitations.
Mahatma Gandhi
#68. A mother's happiness is like a beacon, lighting up the future but reflected also on the past in the guise of fond memories.
Honore De Balzac
#69. Don't dwell too much on the past. The lessons are useful for the present and a preparation for the future. Move on!
Lailah Gifty Akita
#70. Meditation refreshes our mind and helps us let go of old patterns. We spend less time dwelling on the past or worrying about the future; instead, we are focused on the present.
Deepak Chopra
#71. If you constantly dwell on the past that's where you end up living.
Simon Weston
#72. I've learned it does not do well to dwell on the past. You cannot change it. you can revisit it, you can remember it, but it simply will not change!
Kim Yannayon
#73. Having looked the past in the eye, having asked for forgiveness and having made amends, let us shut the door on the past - not in order to forget it but in order not to allow it to imprison us.
Desmond Tutu
#74. No one can make you dwell on the past.
Control your thoughts and actions! Make your own decisions! Just because someone keeps bringing up your past doesn't mean you have to accept it --- you are not obligated to accommodate their recollections of you.
Michelle Word Hollis
#75. My skin is my canvas. The artwork on it represents something that is very powerful and meaningful in my life. I look at my skin as something of a living diary because all my tattoos represent a time in my life. And I never wish to shut the door on the past, so I carry it all with me.
Dave Navarro
#76. If we are talking about choice and regret, what has happened cannot be undone. And dwelling on the past changes nothing. You will only drive yourself to insanity if you do.
Julie Kagawa
#78. It's not like me to brood on the past. I'm not comfortable with uncomfortable truths. I prefer to round off the edges and corners until I have something worth keeping.
Mark Lawrence
#79. Don't dwell on the PAST as it is a memory ... But dream for the Future as it is a hope
Blake Hahn
#80. I try not to dwell on the past. I'm not a big go-back-and-try-to-relive-your-past kinda person.
John Cusack
#81. Don't let this anger ruin your life any more than it already has. If you want to every achieve happiness, don't dwell on the past. Instead, start living. What is the point of obsessing that has already happened, and that you cannot change? Live! And be merry.
Kien Nguyen
#82. When I am running I inhabit and exit my body in the same moment. I bear witness to the harshest of physical sensations, even while I feel myself flying free and away. I do not want to remember what has happened to me. I do not want to reflect on the past. I can't in a way. I'm not made for regrets.
Carrie Snyder
#83. Don't waste your prayers on the past, when the future is where you're going.
Ginn Hale
#84. Man spends his life in reasoning on the past, in complaining of the present, in fearing future.
Antoine Rivarol
#85. that the wars of the past were slowly being forgotten. Shea believed that one could turn his back on the past and build a new world with the future, never understanding that the future was inextricably tied to the past, an interwoven tapestry of events and ideas that would never be entirely severed.
Terry Brooks
#86. If I finish tomorrow and look back on the past years, I' d say, 'that wasn't bad'.
Kevin Kilbane
#87. What is history? An echo of the past in the future; a reflex from the future on the past.
Victor Hugo
#88. And as far as wishing goes, I save my wishes for things that can still come true. There's no point in wasting them on the past.
G.A. McKevett
#89. It's not about being upset about the things you might have said or done yesterday, which is quite appropriate at the moment. It's about looking forward rather than looking back. I hate people who look back on the past or talk about what might have been.
Noel Gallagher
#90. 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
#91. Meditate only on that which God has laid in your spirit, so that you will not live on the past
Sunday Adelaja
#92. Time that is spent dwelling on the past will surely continue in your present moment - and the future.
Michelle Cruz-Rosado
#93. You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.
Johnny Cash
#94. In life you have to rely on the past, and that's called history.
Donald Trump
#95. What necessity is there to dwell on the Past, when the Present is so much surer-the Future so much brighter?
Charlotte Bronte
#96. The swiftness of time is infinite, as is still more evident when we look back on the past.
Seneca The Younger
#97. Do not look back,
No one knows how the world ever began.
Do not fear the future, Nothing lasts forever.
If you dwell on the past or future,
You will miss the moment.
Rumi
#98. Man ... cannot learn to forget, but hangs on the past: however far or fast he runs, that chain runs with him.
Friedrich Nietzsche
#99. Blaming things on the past does not make them better.
Nelson Mandela
#100. The French Revolution is the ultimate modernist statement. Destroy everything. Don't build on the past. There is no past.
John Corigliano
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