Our Past Quotes

I think archaeologists are stuck, and we are losing our past at a very rapid rate. Tens of thousands of sites will be lost, and we've only unveiled a tiny percent of the past. ~ Sarah Parcak

God's forgiveness is not just a casual statement; it is the complete blotting out of all dirt and degradation of our past, present, and future. ~ Billy Graham

To undo mistakes is always harder than not to create them originally, but we seldom have foresight. Therefore, we have no choice but to try to correct our past mistakes. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

That's why we have memory. And the opposite of memory - hope. So things that are gone can still matter. So we can built off our pasts and make future. ~ Isaac Marion

Politics will always mean more to the poor. Always. That's why we strike and march, and despair when our young say they won't vote. That's why the poor are seen as more vital, and animalistic. No classical music for us - no walking around National Trust properties or buying reclaimed flooring. We don't have nostalgia. We don't do yesterday. We can't bear it. We don't want to be reminded of our past, because it was awful: dying in mines and slums without literacy or the vote. Without dignity. It was all so desperate then. That's why the present and the future is for the poor - that's the place in time for us: surviving now, hoping for better later. We live now - for our own instant hot, fast treats, to pep us up: sugar, a cigarette, a new fast song on the radio. ~ Caitlin Moran

If a friend is the one who summons us to our best, then is not Jesus Christ our best friend, and should we not think of the Communion as one of His chief appeals to us to be our best? The Lord's Supper looks not back to our past with a critical eye, but to our future, with a hopeful one. The Master appeals from what we have been to what we may be. He bids us come, not because we are better than we have been, but because He wants us to be. To stay away because our hearts are cold is to refuse to go to the fire till we are warm. ~ Maltbie Davenport Babcock

Those very traumatic events in our lives give us a privileged opportunity to let God's love become concrete for us. What the psychoanaylyst strives to do by bringing traumatic experiences to consciousness often comes about much quicker and more completely by the action of the Holy Spirit. "The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his inermost parts" (Prov. 20:27) We can ask him to illuminate our past and lead us to those incidents that we have still not accepted wholeheartedly. We can save a lot of time if we go into analysis with the Holy Spirit...who is our true and ultimate therapist. Nothing is hidden from him. ~ Wilfrid Stinissen

I like you, Mallory. And God knows you deserve a hell of a lot better than me." He dipped his chin, laughing as he thrust his hand through his hair. "God. I suck at this. Can we just forget - "
I snapped out of it. "You like me?"
His gaze flew to mine. "Yeah, I do. And I know I've been with Paige and I'm not going to pretend that meant nothing, but it's not how I feel for you. Not remotely like how I feel for you. And it's not because of our past - because of you and I knowing each other for so long," he said, and the words kept coming out in a rush. "At first, I thought that was why - this attraction I have to you. I thought it was because of everything we'd shared. And then the night I came to your place and you fixed me up, I thought it was just this physical thing." Pink raced across his cheeks. "And it is most definitely a physical thing, but it wasn't just that. I think part of me knew that from the very first time you said my name."
Now my pulse was pounding. He liked-liked me. Oh my God, this was unexpected. This was totally unplanned. It was an infinite, vast sea of unknown.
"I know you deserve better, but I want to be better. I want to be that for you. ~ Jennifer L. Armentrout

Rivers are places that renew our spirit, connect us with our past, and link us directly with the flow and rhythm of the natural world. ~ Leo Tolstoy

A formal period in life where there isn't the worry of another person's dramas and insecurities can be of great advantage, especially when used for growing into the full and wholesome beings we intended to be when choosing to come to this material manifestation.
"Even after ending a long relationship or a marriage, it seems normal to have some alone-time to reflect, meditate, explore areas of interest, find meaning in one's suffering and try to placate the void felt in the heart before attempting to enter into new relationships, otherwise the same old mistakes will surely re-emerge.
"Once we're at the stage of life where we can stand our own silence, where we've made peace with our past, where we've accepted and grown from its lessons, and we would like to share our independence without becoming dependent on someone else for love and affection, then we can choose to commit to a two bodied intimate relationship. ~ Nityananda Das

The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

There was a fine line of making love and fucking but this was love-fucking. This was cruel but sweet. Angry but happy. It was a thousand words in one timeless action - righting the wrongs of our past and hopefully repairing a future we both didn't think we'd ever find. ~ Pepper Winters

We all have to live with our past, but it doesn't have to define us. ~ Nalini Singh

To design the future effectively, you must first let go of your past. ~ Charles J. Givens

Learn from your past and shut the door behind to live in present.Our past is just like a dry rose which was once a rose with all colors of life, with sweet fragrance, with soft petal, with thorns but now it is left with only thorns which could still hurt. ~ Ideaswar

You can be happy if you are willing to let go of your past and leave yourself unencumbered so you can fly freely. ~ Chris Prentiss

We're killers, all of us: We kill our lives, our past selves, the things that mattered. We bury them under slogans and excuses. ~ Lauren Oliver

Our past doesn't define us, rather, it's the courses we take after that tells us who we really are. ~ Jocelyn Sanchez

When we reflect on our past sentiments and affections, our thought is a faithful mirror, and copies its objects truly; but the colours which it employs are faint and dull, in comparison of those in which our original perceptions were clothed. ~ David Hume

Today, public understanding of our past and our system of government is pitifully low. ~ Eric Liu

We've had great successes, but our future is not about our past success. It's going to be about whether we will invent things that are really going to drive our future. ~ Satya Nadella

Fears are undetected robbers, stealing from our present, robbing us of our future and are mostly rooted in our past! EL ~ Evinda Lepins

Our connection didn't have the bandwidth to sustain the pain buried far enough in our past to cause the grind of our present. His past belonged to her, even though she'd cut the line, taking it with her, tugging at him, leaving no one else for him to give it to. ~ C.D. Reiss

Ireland and its people have much to be proud of. Yet every land and its people have moments of shame. Dealing with the failures of our past, as a country, as a Church, or as an individual is never easy. Our struggle to heal the wounds of decades of violence, injury and painful memory in Northern Ireland are more than ample evidence of this. ~ Sean Brady

Although Hermione is right about a great many things, she was wrong about the nature of things gone by. this is what I have come to know: Our past is never passed and there is no such thing as moving on. but there is this telling and there is such a thing as passing through. ~ Tayari Jones

I think that we honor ourselves by honoring our past. ~ Jimi Hendrix

We cannot change our past. We can not change the fact that people act in a certain way. We can not change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. ~ Charles R. Swindoll

The truth is, however, that God does not intend for us to forget our past because it has the potential to make us stronger, more purpose-filled people. God can redeem those experiences and use them to transform us into a more accurate image of his Son. The key is that we must let him into those places so that we can see him - and ourselves - more clearly. ~ Kasey Van Norman

One day I was living silently in a personal hell, without anyone to tell what I felt, without even knowing that the feelings I had were possible to have; and then one day I was not living like that at all. I had begun to see the past like this: there is a line; you can draw it yourself, or sometimes it gets drawn for you; either way, there it is, your past, a collection of people you used to be and things you used to do. Your past is the person you no longer are, the situations you are no longer in. ~ Jamaica Kincaid

It's not our past which most determines the possibilities open to us, it's what we choose here and now to make happen in our present and future. ~ Nick Baylis

That's why we feel so disoriented, irritated even, when these touchstones from our past are altered. We don't like it when our hometown changes, even in small ways. It's unsettling. The playground! It used to be right here, I swear. Mess with our hometown, and you're messing with our past, with who we are. Nobody likes that. ~ Eric Weiner

AND IF WE ARE TO STRIVE FOR A BETTER FUTURE, MUSTN'T WE BE FAMILIAR AND RECONCILED WITH OUR PAST? ~ Jonathan Safran Foer

The longer I love, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company ... a church ... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past ... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude ... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you ... we are in charge of our attitudes. ~ Charles R. Swindoll

We all carry our past. But it is a case of getting on with your life and improving it, if you want to. ~ Vinnie Jones

Many of us want things to change in our lives. Yet, we spend so much time worrying about circumstances well beyond our control or incessantly thinking about events that have happened well in our past. One very popular activity these days is watching the news, 24/7, almost as entertainment. The reality is though, that most news stories we hear, we have little if any control over. I suggest redirecting out focus. Because, as I see it, the first step to change is spending time on those things you can actually change. ~ Charles F. Glassman

Perfect joy could not be joy alone but must be a joy that somehow contains our past grief and sadness and longing. ~ Amy Alznauer

In short, from then on, we accepted our status as prisoners; we were reduced to our past alone and even if a few people were tempted to live in the future, they quickly gave it up, as far as possible, suffering the wounds that the imagination eventually inflicts on those who trust in it. ~ Albert Camus

As we go within the self, we discover that all the voices of our past lives are still there. As we peel ourselves, which is a process very much like peeling an onion, we discover that there are many selves within the self. ~ Frederick Lenz

There is only "now". The better we make now the better our past and future "nows" will be. ~ Ted Agon

Our names are labels, plainly printed on the bottled essence of our past behavior. ~ Logan Pearsall Smith

Great has been our past, wonderful is our present, and glorious can be our future. ~ Gordon B. Hinckley

You remember, you are drawn back to the pathway to enlightenment, to meditation, and when you begin to meditate your past life knowledge returns to you. ~ Frederick Lenz

Well, that's the thing about our past - it shapes our future. ~ Suzanne Young

There are two important questions: Where have we come from... and where are we going? The myth of modern psychology -- its focus and truth -- is that our lives are determined by our past: our personal history, wounds and childhood experience. The myth of the ancient world -- its focus and truth -- is that our lives are, or can be determined from another place: our future or destiny, if we follow the voice of the spirit, the calling of our soul. ~ Sparrow Hart

The banjo is truly an American instrument, and it captures something about our past. ~ Steve Martin

I have a way to photograph. You work with space, you have a camera, you have a frame, and then a fraction of a second. It's very instinctive. What you do is a fraction of a second, it's there and it's not there. But in this fraction of a second comes your past, comes your future, comes your relation with people, comes your ideology, comes your hate, comes your love - all together in this fraction of a second, it materializes there. ~ Sebastiao Salgado

Behind every trigger is a wound in our past. ~ Jessica Moore

To regret fully is to appreciate how high the stakes are in even the average human life; fully experienced, it turns our eyes, attentive and alert, to a future possibly lived better than our past. ~ David Whyte

We all ran barefooted on the dusty roads in our past, but now the Emperor wears shoes, and it is our responsibility to ensure that the barefooted child and the doting mother are afforded a holistic environment to realise their dreams and ambitions. ~ Anthony Carmona

And you never asked me - I know, I know, not that you care." I heard the whine of the ancient door opening, and Len took a step out. " - if I believe in ghosts, too. But here's your answer: I do, for the exact same reason you do. I don't believe in literal ghosts, but I believe our past unleashes dog-shaped demons upon us, and they chase us, and that's what keeps us running. Moving. Living. ~ L.J. Shen

ASSOCIATIVE MEMORY
In Proust's Swann's Way a sip of tea and a bite of a small scallopshaped cake known as a petite madeleine cause the narrator to find himself suddenly flooded with memories from his past. At first he is puzzled, but then, slowly, after much effort on his part, he remembers that his aunt used to give him tea and madeleines when he was a little boy, and it is this association that has stirred his memory. We have all had similar experiences - a whiff of a particular food being prepared, or a glimpse of some long-forgotten object - that suddenly evoke some scene out of our past. The holographic idea offers a further analogy for the associative tendencies of memory. This is illustrated by yet another kind of holographic recording technique. First, the light of a single laser beam is bounced off two objects simultaneously, say an easy chair and a smoking pipe. The light bounced off each object is then allowed to collide, and the resulting interference pattern is captured on film. Then, whenever the easy chair is illuminated with laser light and the light that reflects off the easy chair is passed through the film, a three-dimensional image of the pipe will appear. Conversely, whenever the same is done with the pipe, a hologram of the easy chair appears. So, if our brains function holographically, a similar process may be responsible for the way certain objects evoke specific memories from our past ~ Michael Talbot

When you begin to realize that your past does not necessarily dictate the outcome of your future, then you can release the hurt. It is impossible to inhale new air until you exhale the old. ~ T.D. Jakes

We can forget our past but our past never forgets us. This is the reason we keep reliving it. ~ Paul Sveen

I hope you aren't too ugly. What a collection of scars you have. Be grateful. Our scars have the ability to give us the reality that our past is real. - Red Dragon ~ Anonymous

Apologizing for our past sins may reveal character and for a time lessen anti-Americanism abroad, but if it is done without acknowledging that the sins of America are the sins of mankind, and that our remedies are so often exceptional, then it only earns transitory applause - and a more lasting contempt that we ourselves do not believe in the values we profess. ~ Victor Davis Hanson

We are ultimately unknowable to ourselves and others. Our past and future are mostly unknowable. God is unknowable. For the present the universe - its origins and its destiny - is unknowable, as is whether there are many universes. Infinity is unknowable. These are some of the fundamental reasons why I call myself an agnostic. ~ Michael Krasny

I loved her for so long. Our past trails behind us like a comet's tail, the future stretched out before us like the universe. Things happen. People get lost and love breaks. ~ Jonathan Tropper

Lewis would have agreed with Oscar Wilde that our past is what we are. We cannot rid ourselves of it. ~ Barbara Vine

Why was this more difficult for me than for my father? I didn't know for certain that it was. But where I wanted to linger, he wanted to speed up. He wanted to rush through his Shepelevo, so he could again leave it behind and forget. With our American eyes we saw our past life. There was so much that needed to be forgotten. I was crushed by the relentless poverty of it. But the smell, the heady, intoxicating smell, more powerful even than the sight of Shepelevo. The sight of Shepelevo tore us up inside. Yet the smell was nothing but bliss. ~ Paullina Simons

Let God begin to rewrite your story. Invite him to show you your past through his eyes. Ask him to surface good memories you have forgotten. He would love to do it. There is healing to be had there. There is a replacing of regret with mercy. Though our past has shaped us, we are not our past. Though our failures and sin have had an effect on who we are, we are not defined by our failures or our sin. Though thought patterns and addictions have overwhelmed us, we are not overcome by them and we will never be overcome by them. Jesus has won our victory. Jesus is our victory. ~ Stasi Eldredge

When you hear voices from your past, do not close your ears, listen to them, but don't stop, keep walking to the future. ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

Mamma says if we stay so focused on our past failings, we won't be able to move beyond them and learn what we need to know. ~ Annette Bridges

Our past is not, as some fear, a series of events carved in stone that we must carry around for the rest of our lives ... but a kaleidoscope of experiences that, when viewed through different lenses, can 'color' (change) how we see our present and future. ~ Bill Crawford

From your past emerges the present, and from the present is born your future. ~ Muhammad Iqbal

Our sense of community and compassionate intelligence must be extended to all life forms, plants, animals, rocks, rivers, and human beings. This is the story of our past and it will be the story of our future. ~ Terry Tempest Williams

We mistakenly believe that who we were is who we are, thus limiting our true potential in the present, based on the limitations of our past. ~ Hal Elrod

Even if we have bad feelings about our past and it causes a sense of alienation, it belongs to our history. Its benchmarks are stored in the granary of our mind and crucial evaluations for the future cannot be made without consulting the archive of our memory. ( "Not without the past") ~ Erik Pevernagie

You can't run from feelings, Charity. You have to face them. Otherwise your future will look just like your past. ~ Elizabeth Jane Howard

I was only able to get over my past when I decided I was going to! As I've discovered, that's how everything starts. I decided to get out of bed this morning. I decided to get ready for work (D'oh! Another early morning). Everything I did today was because I made a decision. Although we can't set ourselves free, getting up and making a decision to move on from our past is a step in the right direction. We can't do God's part, and He won't do our part. He can't make that decision for you, because only you can. But once you have made that decision, He can help you with the rest. ~ Corallie Buchanan

No matter how painful your past has been, you have made it through. ~ Iyanla Vanzant

We all fantasize about a relationship we'd like to do over or something we'd like to change about our past. I think there are a lot more opportunities for second chances in our lives than we think. ~ Jean Smart

Our past is who we are, and death is one of our experiences. I lost my husband a long time ago, but it's always yesterday. ~ Talia Shire

She gently placed her palm on my wounded shoulder and the warmth of her hand did nearly as much to soothe the ache as did the ointment. If only she would continue touching me, allow us to forge something new together from the broken pieces of our past. Her willing presence in my life would be far more healing than any balm ~ Connilyn Cossette

In every action we must look beyond the action at our past, present and future state, and at others whom it affects, and see the relations of all these things. ~ Blaise Pascal

Sit in such a way that you feel light, relaxed, happy, and free. Many of us have so many anxieties and projects that weigh heavily on us. We carry our past sorrows and anger and they become a kind of baggage that makes life heavy. Sitting meditation is a way to practice letting go of the things we carry needlessly. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Blaming our past for not taking action to change our destiny for good is taken from a weak man's playbook... ~ Assegid Habtewold

You are not your past, not your habits, not your compulsions. When you get to know who you are, anything becomes possible. ~ Geneen Roth

The magnitude of any one day is compromised by its passing quickly into the next, a mere moment in time which soon fades into the collective memory of our past. ~ Timothy W. Tron

The key to our scientific future,....is hidden in our past ~ Dan Brown

To say that you can 'have experience,' means, for one thing, that your past plays into and affects your present, and that it defines your capacity for future experience. As a social scientist, you have to control this rather elaborate interplay, to capture what you experience and sort it out; only in this way can you hope to use it to guide and test your reflection, and in the process shape yourself as an intellectual craftsman ~ C. Wright Mills

If you remember your past too well you start blaming your present for it. Look what they did to me, that's what caused me to be like this, it's not my fault. Permit me to correct you: it probably is your fault. And kindly spare me the details. ~ Julian Barnes

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Your past, present, and future are taken care of as you put your trust in Jesus. ~ Rick Warren

It was my mother, my frequent co-conspirator in the kitchen and my conduit to our past, who suggested the means to convey this epic disjunction, this unruly collision of collectivist myths and personal antimyths. We would reconstruct every decade of Soviet history - from the prequel 1910s to the postscript present day - through the prism of food. Together, we'd embark on a yearlong journey unlike any other: eating and cooking our way through decade after decade of Soviet life, using her kitchen and dining room as a time machine and an incubator of memories. Memories of wartime rationing cards and grotesque shared kitchens in communal apartments. Of Lenin's bloody grain requisitioning and Stalin's table manners. Of Khrushchev's kitchen debates and Gorbachev's disastrous antialcohol policies. Of food as the focal point of our everyday lives, and - despite all the deprivations and shortages - of compulsive hospitality and poignant, improbable feasts. ~ Anya Von Bremzen

Beliefs lead us to make decisions based on our past experiences. Principles lead us to make decisions based on what we perceive to be just and righteous. ~ Philip West

We have become a throwaway society. Instead of honoring and preserving our past, we tear it down, shove it aside, and just go on our merry way. Well, I won't have it. We have to stand firm for what we believe in. Only in the most dire circumstances should a structure of historical significance be demolished. ~ Beth Hoffman

Paris is a place in which we can forget ourselves, reinvent, expunge the dead weight of our past. ~ Michael Simkins

He moved to the next tree. "Our past can only follow us if we allow it to, Hawk."
"It doesn't follow me, Sensei, it haunts me," I said. "It lies in wait for me in the dark."
"A warrior cannot be haunted."
"What makes you think I am one?"
"Because when I look at you, I see nothing but a warrior who insists on wrapping herself in an unnecessary cocoon. ~ K.A. Emmons

We know that art is connected with the land, with its salt, with its smell, that outside of national culture there is no art. Cosmopolitanism - a world in which things lose their color and form, and words lose their significance. We love in our past all that we consider native, wonderful and fair. ~ Ilya Ehrenburg

STG and the Ramshorn Theatre are a vital part of Glasgow's rich cultural history. To abandon them now is to abandon not only our past, but our future. ~ Peter Capaldi

I used to think that the term inner child was a ridiculous metaphor invented to remind responsibility-burdened adults to lighten up occasionally and just have fun. But it turns out that the inner child is very real. It is our past. And the only way to escape the past is to embrace it. So before going to bed that night, I put the photo in a frame and place it next to my bed. And I vow that from this day forward, that child will be protected. He will be loved. He will be accepted. He will be trusted. And all this will be given unconditionally. He will not be taught to hate and fear. He will not be criticized for failing to live up to unrealistic expectations. He will not be used as a Kleenex or aspirin for someone else's feelings of loneliness, fear, depression, or anxiety. ~ Neil Strauss

The way we were first loved and the ways we have been loved ever since form our definition of what love means to us. Some people really feel loved when someone gives them a gift. Others experience it when people stand up for them. Still others feel loved when someone goes the extra mile to help them. If our mother showed love by holding us in our pain or joy, without engulfing or controlling us, that will be the behavior that always feels like love to us. We feel love now as we first received it; we give love the way others gave it to us. Thus, since love is unique to each person, we read and write love, receive and give it, in the style designed by our past experience. Yet, like good handwriting, our unique signature can be read by others. ~ David Richo

The facts about our past are powerless against the blood of Jesus and the Truth of His Word. ~ Joyce Meyer

Tension is the Mirror of our Past. ~ Saab

You say war changes a man. I believe you. But it's not the only thing that changes a person. Who we are at any given moment is a combination of our past experiences, present situation, and potential future. It's not stagnant. The person you no longer liked wasn't the same bright-eyed recruit who joined, or the man you became when you came home. ~ Erica Ridley

Our past can control today and tomorrow only to the degree we allow it. The past should not be a place where we dwell but a place from which we learn all we can and then move on. ~ Sue Augustine

We are programmed by our past beliefs, which we inherited from our parents, our cultural traditions sometimes, and our social conditioning. ~ Deepak Chopra

Memory is the basis of individual personality," Miguel de Unamuno writes, "just as tradition is the basis of the collective personality of a people. We live in memory and by memory, and our spiritual life is at bottom simply the effort of our memory to persist, to transform itself into hope, the effort of our past to transform itself into our future. ~ Christian Wiman

It is not as important how we start (our past), but how we finish. ~ Joyce Meyer

We see images of people being beheaded on TV. That's not a thing that you see all the time. That's a different kind of scary. Unfortunately, some of the scary stuff is political, and that's a change from our past. ~ Denis O'Hare