Past quotes
10.5K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside past — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"It's only a thought, and a thought can be changed. I am not limited by any past thinking. I choose my thoughts with care. I constantly have new insights and new ways of looking at my world. I am willing to change and grow."
"Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention."
"You can analyse the past, but you have to design the future"
"It isn't a matter of forgetting. What one has to learn is how to remember and yet be free of the past."
"I think we have to really focus on the issues much more than we may have in the past. I think we have to seek to create coalitional strategies that go beyond racial lines. We need to bring black communities, Chicano communities, Puerto Rican communities, Asian American communities together."
"We have copped a lot of ignorant abuse in the past, but it makes you wonder when a former state coroner openly attacks Aboriginal families who have been through hell."
"We are always remaking history. Our memory is always an interpretive reconstruction of the past, so is perspective."
"Don't waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it."
"I'll tell you all my secrets but I lie about my past."
"Most people rush after pleasure so fast that they rush right past it."
"Don't use the hardships of your past as excuses to deny the possibilities of your future."
"Existence is no more than the precarious attainment of relevance in an intensely mobile flux of past, present, and future."
"Don’t use your conscious past. Use your creative imagination to create a past that belongs to your character. I don’t want you to be stuck with your own life. It’s too little."
"The past is your LESSON. The present is your GIFT. The future is your MOTIVATION."
"I was generally busy from 7 A.M. until midnight. I never had time to sit and think. As I worked, physical and mental fatigue set in and I was unable to operate to the maximum of my intellectual ability. But in a single cell in prison, I had time to think. I had a clear view of my past and present, and I found that my past left much to be desired, both in regard to my relations with other humans and in developing personal worth."
"The past is whatever the records and the memories agree upon."
"Sometimes I think I can expiate all my past and future sins through the aching of my bones."
"The main fuel to speed the world's progress is our stock of knowledge, and the brake is our lack of imagination."
"Your body exists in the past and your mind exists in the future. In yoga, they come together in the present."
"You don't think you'll live past it and you don't really. The person you were is gone. But the half of you that's still alive wakes up one day and takes over again."
