100 Quotes About Past

The past can seem like a ghost town, a place for old superstitions and tired wisdom. But if we take the time to look closely, we can find treasures of wisdom buried in the dust and cobwebs of the past. Here are some great quotes about the past you might enjoy.

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You’re just another story I can’t tell anymore. Pleasefindthis
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I loved you so much once. I did. More than anything in the whole wide world. Imagine that. What a laugh that is now. Can you believe it? We were so intimate once upon a time I can't believe it now. The memory of being that intimate with somebody. We were so intimate I could puke. I can't imagine ever being that intimate with somebody else. I haven't been. Raymond Carver
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Frustration and Love can’t exist in the same place at the same time, so get real and start doing what you would rather be doing in life. Love your life. All of it. Even the heavy shit that happened to you when you were 8. All of it was and IS perfect. Jason Mraz
I just don't see why the past has to matter.
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I just don't see why the past has to matter. Cassandra Clare
You realize that our mistrust of the future makes it...
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You realize that our mistrust of the future makes it hard to give up the past. Chuck Palahniuk
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You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present. John Green
We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a...
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We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there. Pascal Mercier
My past has not defined me, destroyed me, deterred me,...
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My past has not defined me, destroyed me, deterred me, or defeated me; it has only strengthened me. Steve Maraboli
It has shown me that everything is illuminated in the...
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It has shown me that everything is illuminated in the light of the past. It is always along the side of us...on the inside, looking out. Jonathan Safran Foer
I can't. You can't rewrite the past.
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I can't. You can't rewrite the past. Jay Asher
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People who say that yesterday was better than today are ultimately devaluing their own existence. Karl Lagerfeld
The past can teach us, nurture us, but it cannot...
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The past can teach us, nurture us, but it cannot sustain us. The essence of life is change, and we must move ever forward or the soul will wither and die. Susanna Kearsley
Whoever said that the past isn't dead had it backward....
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Whoever said that the past isn't dead had it backward. It's the future that's already dead, already played out. Gayle Forman
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In magic - and in life - there is only the present moment, the now. You can't measure time the way you measure the distance between two points. 'Time' doesn't pass. We human beings have enormous difficulty in focusing on the present; we're always thinking about what we did, about how we could have done it better, about the consequences of our actions, and about why we didn't act as we should have. Or else we think about the future, about what we're going to do tomorrow, what precautions we should take, what dangers await us around the next corner, how to avoid what we don't want and how to get what we have always dreamed of. Paulo Coelho
Always choose the future over the past. What do we...
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Always choose the future over the past. What do we do now? Brian Tracy
The true definition of mental illness is when the majority...
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The true definition of mental illness is when the majority of your time is spent in the past or future, but rarely living in the realism of NOW. Shannon L. Alder
Regret is counterproductive. It's looking back on a past that...
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Regret is counterproductive. It's looking back on a past that you can't change. Questioning things as they occur can prevent regret in the future. Colleen Hoover
You couldn't erase the past. You couldn't even change it....
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You couldn't erase the past. You couldn't even change it. But sometimes life offered you the opportunity to put it right. Ann Brashares
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Some people read palms to tell your future, but I read hands to tell your past. Each scar makes a story worth telling. Each callused palm, each cracked knuckle is a missed punch or years in a factory. Sarah Kay
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I wanted the past to go away, I wanted to leave it, like another country; I wanted my life to close, and open like a hinge, like a wing, like the part of the song where it falls down over the rocks: an explosion, a discovery; I wanted to hurry into the work of my life; I wanted to know, whoever I was, I wasalive for a little while. Mary Oliver
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Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present. Bil Keane
We are products of our past, but we don't have...
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We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it. Rick Warren
It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in...
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It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream. Edgar Allan Poe
Its more fun to think of the future than dwell...
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Its more fun to think of the future than dwell on the past. Sara Shepard
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‎No people whose word for 'yesterday' is the same as their word for 'tomorrow' can be said to have a firm grip on the time. Salman Rushdie
All sins are forgiven once you start making a lot...
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All sins are forgiven once you start making a lot of money. RuPaul
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Across the board... Not junkies or freaks, but people who were just as comfortable with drugs like weed, booze, or coke as we are - and we're not weird, are we? Hell no, we're just overworked professionals who need to relax now and then, have a bit of the whoop and the giggle, right? Hunter S. Thompson
We may be living past and future lives at the...
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We may be living past and future lives at the same time we are living this one. Doug Dillon
Bellybuttons are our link with the past.
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Bellybuttons are our link with the past. Anthony T.Hincks
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Although I am still far from this kind of interior understanding of myself, with profound respect for its significance I have sought to preserve my individuality―worshipped the unknown God. With a premature anxiety I have tried to avoid coming in close contact with those things whose force of attraction might be too powerful for me. I have sought to appropriate much from them, studied their distinctive characteristics and meaning in human life, but at the same time guarded against coming, like the moth, too close to the flame. I have had little to win or to lose in association with the ordinary run of men, partly because what they do―so-called practical life―does not interest me much, partly because their coldness and indifference to the spiritual and deeper currents in man alienate me even more from them. With few exceptions my companions have had no special influence upon me. A life that has not arrived at clarity about itself must necessarily exhibit an uneven side-surface; confronted by certain facts [*Facta*] and their apparent disharmony, they simply halted there, for, as I see it, they did not have sufficient interest to seek a resolution in a higher harmony or to recognize the necessity of it. Their opinion of me was always one-sided, and I have vacillated between putting too much or too little weight on what they said. I have now withdrawn from their influence and the potential variations of my life's compass resulting from it. Thus I am again standing at the point where I must begin again in another way. I shall now calmly attempt to look at myself and begin to initiate inner action; for only thus will I be able, like a child calling itself "I" in its first consciously undertaken act, be able to call myself "I" in a profounder sense. But that takes stamina, and it is not possible to harvest immediately what one has sown. I will remember that philosopher's method of having his disciples keep silent for three years; then I dare say it will come. Just as one does not begin a feast at sunrise but at sundown, just so in the spiritual world one must first work forward for some time before the sun really shines for us and rises in all its glory; for although it is true as it says that God lets his sun shine upon the good and the evil and lets the rain fall on the just and the unjust, it is not so in the spiritual world. So let the die be cast― I am crossing the Rubicon! No doubt this road takes me into battle, but I will not renounce it. I will not lament the past―why lament? I will work energetically and not waste time in regrets, like the person stuck in a bog and first calculating how far he has sunk without recognizing that during the time he spends on that he is sinking still deeper. I will hurry along the path I have found and shout to everyone I meet: Do not look back as Lot's wife did, but remember that we are struggling up a hill."―from_ Journals_, (The Search for Personal Meaning). Unknown
I am haunted by my past and by what I...
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I am haunted by my past and by what I must do to ensure my future. Anthony T. Hincks
How many people long for that
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How many people long for that "past, simpler, and better world, " I wonder, without ever recognizing the truth that perhaps it was they who were simpler and better, and not the world about them? R.A. Salvatore
What was the point of trying to run away if...
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What was the point of trying to run away if people were going to insist on reminding you of what you were running from? Morgan Matson
People tend to look on the beliefs of the past...
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People tend to look on the beliefs of the past as being primitive and unintelligent, yet we are seeing more truth in the past every day. Jennifer L. Armentrout
We have to know the truth about the past to...
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We have to know the truth about the past to discover out future. Patti Callahan Henry
What comes, when it comes, will be what it is.
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What comes, when it comes, will be what it is. Alberto Caeiro
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The universe contains many planets which make it what it is — a unified system. In addition, our bodies contain many organs, and each part is congruent to a planet in our solar system. The universe we see out our eyes is a mirror of what is within us. This is what God meant by making man in his image. We are all made as a reflection of God and that reflection of him is within us. Furthermore, not only are all religions connected to the same Truth, or Cosmic Heart, but this concept is also mirrored in the pantheons of ancient religions, where each of the many gods simply represented one set of characteristics of the ONE. And in all cases, these many gods symbolized the planets, therefore mimicking the different parts of the universe and the ONE God’s many mirrors (He Who is All). The structure behind all polytheistic religions of the past and present is one and the same. They are all built on the same foundation as Nature. Suzy Kassem
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After so many years even the fire of passion dies, and with it what was believed the light of the truth. Who of us is able to say now whether Hector or Achilles was right, Agamemnon or Priam, when they fought over the beauty of a woman who is now dust and ashes? Umberto Eco
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I’ll tell you another secret, this one for your own good. You may think the past has something to tell you. You may think that you should listen, should strain to make out its whispers, should bend over backward, stoop down low to hear its voice breathed up from the ground, from the dead places. You may think there’s something in it for you, something to understand or make sense of. But I know the truth: I know from the nights of Coldness. I know the past will drag you backward and down, have you snatching at whispers of wind and the gibberish of trees rubbing together, trying to decipher some code, trying to piece together what was broken. It’s hopeless. The past is nothing but a weight. It will build inside of you like a stone. Take it from me: If you hear the past speaking to you, feel it tugging at your back and running its fingers up your spine, the best thing to do–the only thing– is run. . Lauren Oliver
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The opposite of a correct statement is an incorrect statement. The opposite of a profound truth is another profound truth (Niels Bohr)." By this, he means that we require a larger reading of the human past, of our relations with each other, the universe and God, a retelling of our older tales to encompass many truths and to let us grow with change. Neil Postman
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The choices we’re working with here are a block universe, where past, present and future all coexist simultaneously and everything has already happened; chaos, where anything can happen and nothing can be predicted because we can’t know all the variables; and a Christian universe in which God made everything and it’s all here for a purpose but we have free will anyway. Audrey Niffenegger
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As we experience this love, there is a temptation at times to become hostile to our earlier understandings, feeling embarrassed that we were so "simple" or "naive, " or "brainwashed" or whatever terms arise when we haven't come to terms with our own story. These past understandings aren't to be denied or dismissed; they're to be embraced. Those experiences belong. Love demands that they belong. That's where we were at that point in our life and God met us there. Those moments were necessary for us to arrive here, at this place at this time, as we are. Love frees us to embrace all of our history, the history in which all things are being made new. . Rob Bell
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THE FOUR HEAVENLY FOUNTAINSLaugh, I tell you And you will turn back The hands of time. Smile, I tell you And you will reflect The face of the divine. Sing, I tell you And all the angels will sing with you! Cry, I tell you And the reflections found in your pool of tears -Will remind you of the lessons of today and yesterday To guide you through the fears of tomorrow. Suzy Kassem
He uses our past to positively affect our present and...
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He uses our past to positively affect our present and secure our future. Evinda Lepins
If you want to fly on the sky, you need...
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If you want to fly on the sky, you need to leave the earth. If you want to move forward, you need to let go the past that drags you down. Amit Ray
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After his experience with Minos, Nico realized that most spectres held only as much power as you allowed them to have. They pried into your mind, using fear or anger or longing to influence you. Nico had learned to shield himself. Sometimes he could even turn the tables and bend ghosts to his will. Rick Riordan
It is not until you change your identity to match...
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It is not until you change your identity to match your life blueprint that you will understand why everything in the past never worked. Shannon L. Alder
Sometimes we have to soak ourselves in the tears and...
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Sometimes we have to soak ourselves in the tears and fears of the past to water our future gardens. Suzy Kassem
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Le passé et le présent sont deux statues incomplètes: l'une a été retirée toute mutilée du débris des âges, l'autre n'a pas encore reçu sa perfection de l'avenir. Unknown
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Accept the past as the past and realize that each new day you are a new person who doesn’t need to carry old baggage into the new day with you. It’s amazing how many people ruin the beauty of today with the sorrows of yesterday. Yesterday doesn’t exist anymore! For example, if ever I feel foolish or guilty about something I’ve done, I learn from it and attempt to do better the next time. Shame or guilt serves no one. Such feelings actually keep us down, often lowering the vibrations of those around us, as well. Living in the present moment is the recurring baptism of the soul, forever purifying every new day with a new you. Alaric Hutchinson
You can't be a rebel without the scars that come...
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You can't be a rebel without the scars that come with it. Truth is, some days scars are just as ugly as they are beautiful. Criss Jami
Good...if you've done things you aren't proud of. It means...
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Good...if you've done things you aren't proud of. It means you have a conscience. Criss Jami
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The reason why we get the same partners is not because people are the same, but because we pull the dark shadow of past hurts over our eyes and we live the same all over again. We change the actors, but never the masks we give them in our play. Dragos Bratasanu
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In the pursuit of dreams, we all have different beginnings. Your past is not negotiable. You must let go of the hope for a better past. Dragos Bratasanu
With every dream and with every love, you have to...
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With every dream and with every love, you have to die to the old, and be reborn to the new. You must leave what you know behind, and surrender to the unknown. Dragos Bratasanu
Your actions show what you know, and your replies to...
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Your actions show what you know, and your replies to obstacles give clarity into what you will learn. Grace Sara
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The telling and the hearing of a story is not a simple act. The one who tells must reach down into deeper layers of the self, reviving old feelings, reviewing the past. Whatever is retrieved is reworked into a new form, one that narrates events and gives the listener a path through these events that leads to some fragment of wisdom. The one who hears takes the story in, even to a place not visible or conscious to the mind, yet there. In this inner place a story from another life suffers a subtle change. As it enters the memory of the listener it is augmented by reflection, by other memories, and even the body hearing and responding in the moment of the telling. By such transmissions, consciousness is woven. . Susan Griffin
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There's nothing you can do about the past." "You're wrong. I can learn from it..." Tariq dug his heels into his stallion's flanks, and the horse shot forward, painting a dark smudge across the sand. "And I can make sure it never happens again! Renee Ahdieh
We can accept and embrace our pasts as part of...
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We can accept and embrace our pasts as part of the path that shaped who we are now. Amy Leigh Mercree
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If you take society’s definition of knowing oneself, you will become lost in the many translations. Grace Sara
Find your bones. Believe in what you are.
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Find your bones. Believe in what you are. Grace Sara
Surrendering is not giving up--it is gaining strength.
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Surrendering is not giving up--it is gaining strength. Grace Sara
Jealousy, and attempting to match others in life and stride,...
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Jealousy, and attempting to match others in life and stride, is self-abandonment. Grace Sara
Taking care of yourself will take care of more than...
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Taking care of yourself will take care of more than yourself. Grace Sara
Control is an illusion that you must give up.
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Control is an illusion that you must give up. Grace Sara
Forgiveness is a skill gained by those willing to change.
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Forgiveness is a skill gained by those willing to change. Grace Sara
To greet the present is to part with the past...
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To greet the present is to part with the past and future. Grace Sara
Let today be the day you finally release yourself from...
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Let today be the day you finally release yourself from the imprisonment of past grudges and anger. Simplify your life. Let go of the poisonous past and live the abundantly beautiful present... today. Steve Maraboli
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Man…who lives in three places — in the past, in the present, and in the future — can be unhappy if one of these three is worthless. Religion has even added a fourth — eternity. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
The only real battle in life is between hanging on...
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The only real battle in life is between hanging on and letting go. Shannon L. Alder
It is not as much about who you used to...
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It is not as much about who you used to be, as it is about who you choose to be. Sanhita Baruah
How to win in life:1 work hard 2 complain less...
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How to win in life:1 work hard 2 complain less 3 listen more 4 try, learn, grow5 don't let people tell you it cant be done6 make no excuses Germany Kent
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Times of terror and the deepest misery may arrive, but if there is to be any happiness in this misery it can only be a spiritual happiness, related to the past in the rescue of the culture of early ages and to the future in a serene and indefatigable championship of the spirit in a time which would otherwise completely swallow up the material. Hermann Hesse
I am who I am because the tears of my...
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I am who I am because the tears of my past have watered the magnificence of my present. Steve Maraboli
When you learn from the past, you're liberated from it.
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When you learn from the past, you're liberated from it. Tim Fargo
We decide how much we want our past to be...
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We decide how much we want our past to be a part of our present. I stopped inviting the past into my life. It took the hint and stopped showing up. Scott Stabile
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We weren’t happy together but we lived in a state of easy, mild contentment. We shared everything except the stupid fucking secret hanging round your neck. I imagined tiny photographs: portraits in sepia of your parents, their faces partially obscured by goitres. Meanwhile, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next year, maybe not even in a decade from now but one day: the planet would fall apart. Jon Gresham
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You have the right to promote your own happiness just like everyone else, just like me. Your present dream has been shattered, but you can dream another. You should know that 'you can't relive old dreams.' Even if you force them to come true, they won't bring you happiness. Mao Dun
Wise is the one who flavors the future with some...
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Wise is the one who flavors the future with some salt from the past. Becoming dust is no threat to the phoenix born from the ash. Curtis Tyrone Jones
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The past is a lake in which you add every day a glass with your attitudes. How crystal clear is water? Unknown
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One fine day she left the past behind and gave privacy to the future. He took his now to take a walk, watch the sun, listen to good music, spread smiles and be grateful! Unknown
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Past, of not being able to change. Future, of not being able to predict. Now, to be transformed into a better past and a prosperous future. Unknown
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A thousand happy moments succumbed to history. It was the happiest hour of the year, worst time of our lives. I can still smell the ruins from that cold dark brute stormy October night. Parul Wadhwa
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The past, the present, the future —The floodgates of time wait for Her footsteps Yet She resides forever —In the shape of a rising dawn, In the sound of a humming bee, In the chirping of a flying bird, In the birth of a newborn, In the blissful serenity of Nature;For Happiness is but a reflection of simplicity. Debatrayee Banerjee
There ain't a man in the world cares about a...
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There ain't a man in the world cares about a woman's past until he's thinking of her in his future. Dru Pagliassotti
The past is made out of facts... I guess the...
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The past is made out of facts... I guess the future is just hope. Isaac Marion
Me and you, we got more yesterday than anybody. We...
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Me and you, we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow. Toni Morrison
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That there are many things that we cant understand. the past. the bad things that happened... and we become afraid. of what might happen in the future. its okay to be afraid. but we have to keep hoping and believeing... to keep hoping and trying our best to be good and do good. even when we're afraid Nafisa Haji
I met a boy whose eyes showed me that the...
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I met a boy whose eyes showed me that the past, present and future were all the same thing. Jennifer Elisabeth
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He believed in himself, believed in his quixotic ambition, letting the failures of the previous day disappear as each new day dawned. Yesterday was not today. The past did not predict the future if he could learn from his mistakes. Daniel Wallace
Fair as the moon and joyful as the light; Tot...
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Fair as the moon and joyful as the light; Tot wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim; Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright; Not as she is, but as she fills his dreams. Christina Rossetti
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Dear God Please take away my pain and despair of yesterday and any unpleasant memories and replace them with Your glorious promise of new hope. Show me a fresh HS-inspired way of relating to negative things that have happened. I ask You for the mind of Christ so I can discern Your voice from the voice of my past. I pray that former rejection and deep hurts will not color what I see and hear now. Help me to see all the choices I have ahead of me that can alter the direction of my life. I ask You to empower me to let go of the painful events and heartaches that would keep me bound. Thank You for Your forgiveness that You have offered to me at such a great price. Pour it into my heart so I can relinquish bitterness hurts and disappointments that have no place in my life. Please set me free to forgive those who have sinned against me and caused me pain and also myself. Open my heart to receive Your complete forgiveness and amazing grace. You have promised to bind up my wounds Psa 147:3 and restore my soul Psa 23:3. Help me to relinquish my past surrender to You my present and move to the future You have prepared for me. I ask You to come into my heart and make me who You would have me to be so that I might do Your will here on earth. I thank You Lord for all that’s happened in my past and for all I have become through those experiences. I pray You will begin to gloriously renew my present. Sue Augustine
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I look out into the water and up deep into the stars. I beg the sparkling lanterns of light to cure me of myself – my past and the kaleidoscope of mistakes, failures and wrong turns that have stacked unbearable regret upon my shoulders. Jennifer Elisabeth
Past and Present I know well; each is a friend...
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Past and Present I know well; each is a friend and sometimes an enemy to me. But it is the quiet, beckoning Future, an absolute stranger, with whom I have fallen madly in love. Richelle E. Goodrich
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If, years later, I do use the slit detector to observe which way the electron went, it will mean that many years earlier the electron must have passed through one slit or the other. But if I don't use the "slit detector, " then the electron must have passed through both slits. This is, of course, extremely weird. My actions at the beginning of the twenty-first century can change what happened thousands of years ago when the electron began its journey. It seems that just as there are multiple futures, there are also multiple pasts, and my acts of observation in the present can decide what happened in the past. As much as it challenges any hope of ever really knowing the future, quantum physics asks whether I can ever really know the past. It seems that the past is also in a superposition of possibilities that crystallize only once they are observed. . Marcus Du Sautoy
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If this turns to friendship, it only means That one of us will suffer. That when we meet after the worst of endings, There will only be this skein of words between us– Most of them for boredom, fewer for loneliness– Rising out of our mutual space of breath, leaving Behind a bluer sky each moment of departure. And one of us will cling on to its blue, Hung on partings like a muted cloud, while The other rides on a wing of word away from here. Cyril Wong
The weight of your baggage never stops true love from...
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The weight of your baggage never stops true love from taking flight. Curtis Tyrone Jones
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Our essential humanity is dependent upon humankind’s ability to join the past and the future with the present. Recollections and future projections grant us the ability to cogitate, analyze, and evaluate. Contrasting memories enable us to ascertain what is true and false, and determine what is charming, attractive, stunning, or sublime. Remembrance of the past serves to comfort us, awareness of the future offers us hope, while our dutiful engagement in the present is capable of arresting our complete attention. . Kilroy J. Oldster
Don't let past mistakes make you lose hope of achieving...
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Don't let past mistakes make you lose hope of achieving good. Some of those with the worst past have made a great future for themselves. Mufti Ismail Menk
Living in the moment works sometimes, but when alone, it...
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Living in the moment works sometimes, but when alone, it clouds over your memories and dreams, and those are what I need to survive. D.S. Mixell