To Understand The Present Quotes

#1. Those who are unwilling to confront the past will be unable to understand the present and unfit to face the future.

Bernard Lewis

#2. People instinctively turn to the past to understand the present. But the questions the historian asks are given to him or her by the world they live in.

Eric Foner

#3. The most reliable way to forecast the future is to try to understand the present.

John Naisbitt

#4. The Master said, "A true teacher is one who, keeping the past alive, is also able to understand the present."
(Analects 2.11)

Confucius

#5. You have to know the past to understand the present.

Carl Sagan

#6. To understand the present with its full, rich significance, the mind must free itself from the habit of self-protecting acquisition; when it is utterly naked, then there is immortality.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

#7. History is important because it teaches us about the past. And bylearning about the past, you come to understand the present, so that you may make educated decisions about the future.

Richelle Mead

#8. People must know the past to understand the present, and to face the future;

Nellie L. McClung

#9. History, which interprets the past to understand the present and confront the future is the least rewarding discipline for a dying species.

P.D. James

#10. Our task - and the task of all education - is to understand the present world, the world in which we live and make our choices.

E.F. Schumacher

#11. Unfortunately, most Christians do not understand the battle they are fighting, the enemy that they face, or the means God has provided to overcome the temptations and deception of this present world system.

Chip Ingram

#12. The educator must above all understand how to wait; to reckon all effects in the light of the future, not of the present.

Ellen Key

#13. But then I knew better than anyone how the persona you chose to present to the world could be very different from what was really inside. I knew how grief could make you behave in ways you couldn't even begin to understand.

Jojo Moyes

#14. True happiness is to understand our duties toward God and man; to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence on the future; not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears, but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is abundantly sufficient.

Seneca.

#15. If you would understand the present, you must come to know the past.

Libba Bray

#16. If you want to understand the causes that existed in the past, look at the results as they are manifested in the present. And if you want to understand what results will be manifested in the future, look at the causes that exist in the present.

Gautama Buddha

#17. As long as you haven't been able to feel all kinds of emotions simultaneously, you haven't been able to understand an ultimate logic in which the past, present and future take place at once.

Toba Beta

#18. true knowledge is the ability to discern the end in the beginning, to understand the end result of present action.

John S. Hatcher

#19. An accurate knowledge of the past of a country is necessary for everyone who would understand its present, and who desires to judge of its future.

Annie Besant

#20. The true felicity of life is to be free from anxieties and pertubations; to understand and do our duties to God and man, and to enjoy the present without any serious dependence on the future.

Seneca The Younger

#21. Brethren, understand that the gospel is a gospel which brings a present salvation; and try to feel that it is not presumption, but simply out of the very fundamental principle of it, when you are not afraid to say, I know that my Redeemer is yonder, and I know that He loves me.

Alexander MacLaren

#22. We need to understand that honoring the past is far different than living in it.

Craig D. Lounsbrough

#23. The great task of statesmanship is to apply past lessons to new situations, to draw correct analogies to understand and act upon present forces, to recognise the need for change ...

Malcolm Fraser

#24. If we use the past only to creature heroes for present purposes, we will never understand the richness of human thought or the plurality of ways of knowing.

Stephen Jay Gould

#25. I'm interested in history, in trying to relate the past to the present and to understand how people thought about their problems and pleasures.

Claire Tomalin

#26. Investing is a simple process of taking into account the present value and future value. The other major factor to understand here, is what you lose as a result of inaction. Consider what you can gain and what you can lose in your decision.

J.R. Rim

#27. What's more, she lacked the good sense to understand how our lives are enriched by the minor interactions that present themselves every day.

Miriam Karmel

#28. I have to say that one of the most important things Scientology has given me is the ability to keep my integrity together. I understand how people can get into unethical situations, and Scientology has always helped me keep my head clear and be in present time.

Danny Masterson

#29. We need all three senses of time - a sense of the future, a sense of the present, and a sense of the past - at all times to understand or experience what's happening right now. It's constantly unfolding that way.

Fred Alan Wolf

#30. Let's keep our boots polished, bayonets sharpened, and present a picture of force and strength to the Red Army. This is the only language they understand and respect.

George S. Patton

#31. Parents who engage in this kind of [conscious] parenting understand the power of being present being mindful to take the time to build connection understanding that this foundation is the bedrock of all later self-worth, self-esteem and self-actualization.

Shefali Tsabary

#32. Understanding the times means understanding the course of history and civilization, as well as understanding the present situation. If we understand how God guides the development of human history, we can begin to understand the therapies needed to correct the problems of our times.

James B. Jordan

#33. There is a great fear of our Union - a fear that I do not fully understand, but that I know is present ... What is it that causes some men to act so hastily and so cruelly? It cannot be that we are so powerful. Is it so much to ask that the poorest people of the land have a measure of justice?

Cesar Chavez

#34. I should like to understand what really goes on in the souls of plongeurs and tramps and Embankment sleepers. At present I do not feel that I have seen more than the fringe of poverty.

George Orwell

#35. Fear is caused by the uncertainty of the future. Sorrow is caused by the remembrance of the past. Try to keep your thoughts in the present, for the future we will never know and the past we may never understand.

Jeffrey Fry

#36. My first memory was of stories about the past - a past that, according to the storytellers, was superior in every way to the life then being lived. It didn't take me long, however, to understand that the present was all we had, for the past was gone, and nothing could be done about it.

Horton Foote

#37. There's a story unfolding with a definite beginning and an eventual end, and even though we can't begin to imagine what the whole plot is, and we can hardly even see beyond the present moment, someday we're going to see and understand all of it. For now, we trust. Later, we'll know.

Ann Tatlock

#38. The North understand it better - they have told us for twenty years that their object was to pen up slavery within its present limits - surround it with a border of free States, and like the scorpion surrounded with fire, they will make it sting itself to death.

Robert Toombs

#39. With a curious zeal to better understand our own existence, we often go far out of our way to find out who we are and where we have come from. Why? We need to know, not just for the present, but from our earliest beginnings to the present.

Edward J. Fraughton

#40. To admit regret is to understand that we are fallible - that there are powers beyond us. To admit regret is to lose control not only of a difficult past but of the very story we tell about our present. To admit sincere and abiding regret is one of our greatest but unspoken contemporary sins.

David Whyte

#41. I began to understand that all Texas is an eternal synthesis of past and present, superimposed one upon the other. It produces a feeling of being in two places at once.

Mary Lasswell

#42. I wish I could talk to twenty-three-year-old Sarah again. Ten-year-old Sarah doesn't understand my struggle. She hasn't come to this yet. She hasn't come to the place where my present means nothing but my future is all everyone talks about. Twenty-three-year-old

A.S. King

#43. The American Gun movement is actually very easy to understand. All of them, little boys with self esteem issues, exacerbated by an ever-present gun/phallic relation disorder. Apparently big guns fit well in small hands.

T. Rafael Cimino

#44. It's definitely a challenge, but it's even more than that. Beyond the basic need to understand what you're saying, a computer needs to understand what you're trying to do. So humans talking to computers present variable challenges.

Peter P. Mahoney

#45. There are two kinds of genius. The first and highest may be said to speak out of the eternal to the present, and must compel its age to understand it; the second understands its age, and tells it what it wishes to be told.

James Russell Lowell

#46. Divination is the quest to understand more about the past, present, and future. In other words, Tarot readings are an attempt to understand ourselves better and discover how we might live better in the future.

Theresa Cheung

#47. Good storytelling lets the audience relive events in the present so they can understand the forces, choices, and emotions that led the character to do what he did.

John Truby

#48. This is the conundrum of the present regimes in the Arab world. They still want to control youth; they want to be in control as they did in the 1950s and '60s. But that doesn't work anymore. Now with just a Wi-Fi link, you can understand what's happening in the world.

Bassem Youssef

#49. To not understand neocolonialism is to not fully live in the present.

Bell Hooks

#50. To understand the living present, and the promise of the future, it is necessary to remember the past.

Rachel Carson

#51. The present enables us to understand the past, not the other way round.

A.J.P. Taylor

#52. One of the most powerful, though difficult, lessons we all need to learn on our spiritual pilgrimage is that even when bad things happen and we do not understand why, we can trust God to be present and working on our behalf.

Henry Cloud

#53. The further we distance ourselves from the spell of the present, explored by our senses, the harder it will be to understand and protect nature's precarious balance, let alone the balance of our own human nature.

Diane Ackerman

#54. We might give her presents, tell some tales, but would she ever be able to really understand what the journey had been like for us?

Sara Sheridan

#55. I'm a bad man. I need to understand the past. It illuminates the present.

Glen Cook

#56. When we go home to the present moment, we understand there are so many conditions of happiness that we don't need to go running after yet another one. We already have enough conditions to be happy. Happiness is entirely possible right in the here and now. The

Thich Nhat Hanh

#57. We can experience nothing but the present moment, live in no other second of time, and to understand this is as close as we can get to eternal life.

P.D. James

#58. None of us can be in the present and the past at the same time. Not even when we
try to understand the things that happen to us. Close the door, change the record, clean the house. Stop being who you were, become who you are NOW.

Paulo Coelho

#59. We study history not to know the future but to widen our horizons, to understand that our present situation is neither natural nor inevitable, and that we consequently have many more possibilities before us than we imagine.

Yuval Noah Harari

#60. To understand what happens now one must find the cause, which may be very long ago in its beginning, but is surely there, and therefore a knowledge of history as detailed as possible is essential if we are to comprehend the present and be prepared for the future.

Pearl S. Buck

#61. I know that the purpose of life is to understand and be in the present moment with the people you love. It's just that simple.

Jane Seymour

#62. At present," he said, "I am responsible for conveying my associates to a place called Chicago. I understand it is somewhere in the hinterland.

Erik Larson

#63. Clearing your head of distractions in order to notice and understand the people you are with can feel inefficient - there are so many other people and issues to think about. But being present makes you effective.

Margaret Heffernan

#64. Anyone who has experienced a strange episode in their life that defies all present scientific knowledge can appreciate the limits of human knowledge. There's nothing like such an event to make you keenly aware of how little we truly know and understand.

Steven Symes

#65. That's when I understand why I dance. For some people, it's the only way to make sense of the past, to get to the meaning behind the present. To find your true self.

Carol M. Tanzman

#66. The function off the historian is neither to love the past nor to emancipate himself from the past, but to master and understand it as the key to the understanding of the present.

Edward Hallett Carr

#67. Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace and it's got to be fixed.

John McCain

#68. Every moment is an eternity in itself. Bliss is the present moment and each and everyone of us needs to understand this.

Wayne Dyer

#69. You said that you would've taken back that day if you were given a chance. But I ask you why? All things happen for a reason, right? We don't understand the details of our lives because we're so busy living day to day. We need to take a few steps back and take the whole picture in.

Amy Astorga

#70. A friend gave me a CD of the 'Pathetique' Symphony as a Christmas present. I went home, and I put on the CD expecting to listen to Tchaikovsky. But it started 'ta ta ta taaa.' It was too long for me. I didn't understand it at first, but then I fell in love, in love, in love.

Gustavo Dudamel

#71. It's always hard to turn a mirror on oneself, and harder still to understand how one's immediate present interacts with the near-future.

Sebastian Marshall

#72. The tectonic layers of our lives rest so tightly one on top of the other that we always come up against earlier events in later ones, not as matter that has been fully formed and pushed aside, but absolutely present and alive. I understand this. Nonetheless, I sometimes find it hard to bear.

Bernhard Schlink