"The present generation has the same right of self-government which the past one has exercised for itself."
Read quote
3 likes
Past quotes
Past
10.5K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Topics related to Past
Browse quotes that often appear alongside past — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Past quotes (page 119 of 526)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"It is past time for the U.S. government to fully fulfill our moral obligation to those who have fought for freedom and democracy."
Read quote
3 likes
"It baffles me that people think that obliterating the past will save them from its consequences, as if throwing away the empty cake plate would help you lose weight."
Read quote
3 likes
"For Fleur de Chine, I imagined the romantic and mysterious women from Asia's cinematic past-from the '30s femme fatale in a cheongsam and dark lipstick, to the'60s Hong Kong heroine of In the Mood for Love. I wanted to capture that fascinating, exquisite and slightly scandalous femininity."
Read quote
3 likes
"Anyone with a long-term partner, anyone with a long-term lover, if that lover dies, you could easily see yourself in a situation where you couldn't see your future and you would be living entirely in the past. It's about that loss."
Read quote
3 likes
"That's the good part of having my past follow me, is that sometimes some of that stuff can help."
Read quote
3 likes
"Have you ever said, 'I can't do that! I'm just not like that!'? If you've ever used this phrase, you've hit the boundary of how you've defined yourself in the past, and it's affecting the quality of your present-day life. Ask yourself, 'Where did these beliefs about who I am come from, and how old are they?' Maybe it's time to update your identity."
Read quote
3 likes
"Most of society thinks that biography is destiny, that the past equals the future, and of course it does if you live there...but what we really have to remind ourselves is that decision is the ultimate power."
Read quote
3 likes
"I thought of the future, and spoke of the past."
Read quote
3 likes
"all his prayers of the past had been simple concrete requests: God, give me a bicycle, a knife with seven blades, a box of oil paints. Only how, how, could you say something so indefinite, so meaningless as this: God, let me be loved."
Read quote
3 likes
"It's no longer a fad to be down for the young Black male. Everybody wants to go past. Like the gangster stuff, it just got exploited."
Read quote
3 likes
"The swiftness of time is infinite, as is still more evident when we look back on the past."
Read quote
3 likes
"Life is divided into three periods: that which has been, that which is, that which will be. Of these the present is short, the future is doubtful, the past is certain."
Read quote
3 likes
"The past existed in multitudinous ways. You only experienced one probable past. By changing this past in your mind, now, in your present, you can change not only its nature but its effect, and not only upon yourself but upon others."
Read quote
3 likes
"As far as you are concerned the present is your point of action, focus and power, and from that point of volition you form both your future and past. Realizing this, you will understand that you are not at the mercy of a past over which you have no control."
Read quote
3 likes
"We are each given a block of marble when we begin a lifetime, and the tools to shape it into sculpture. We can drag it behind us untouched, we can pound it to gravel, we can shape it into glory. Examples from every other life are left for us to see, lifeworks finished and unfinished, guiding and warning. Near the end our sculpture is nearly finished, and we can smooth and polish what we started years before. We can make our progress then, but to do it we must see past the appearances of age."
Read quote
3 likes
"Until you can become accountable to yourself and only yourself, you're probably not going to live a fully vital life. So much of literature is about accountability. The moral issues in most novels are about people becoming responsible for their own behaviour. One of the forces against being responsible for your own behaviour is the force of the past, in the way that the past tries to form you."
Read quote
3 likes
"The past is the prism through which we see a great, great, great deal of ourselves; it's a useful prism. It doesn't mean that we're fascinated by the dead or that we're fascinated by things that are settled. It is just one place where we can go to understand ourselves in the present."
Read quote
3 likes
"I won't lie, I've had a lot of discouraging moments in the past years, moments I wasn't sure about things and doubted myself."
Read quote
3 likes
"In the past, there has always been so much pressure about carrying a show and promoting a record."
Read quote
3 likes