“You can only picture the future based on what you know about the past. If history dies the future can only be hideous.”

“If you could not accept the past and its burden, there was no future, for without one there cannot be the other, and […] if you could accept the past you might hope for the future, for only out of the past can you make the future.”

Robert Penn Warren book All the King's Men

“God alone knows the future, but only an historian can alter the past.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

“The past is history written in stone that can't be altered. The future is transitory and never guaranteed. Today is the only thing you can alter for certain. Make the most of it.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

“You cannot find yourself in the past or future. The only place where you can find yourself is in the Now.”

Eckhart Tolle book A New Earth

“Only by not forgetting the past can we be the master of the future.”

Ba Jin (1904–2005) Chinese novelist

“You can't change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying about the future.”

Karen Blixen (1885–1962) Danish writer

“Only you can control your future.”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

“You can never plan the future by the past.”

Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman

“It was never too late to learn something. The past is unalterable in any event. The future is the only thing we can change. Learning the lessons of the past is the only way to shape the present and the future.”

Jim Butcher book Ghost Story