“The past is but the beginning of a beginning, and all that is or has been is but the twilight of the dawn.”

—  H. G. Wells , book The Discovery of the Future

The Discovery of the Future (1901)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The past is but the beginning of a beginning, and all that is or has been is but the twilight of the dawn." by H. G. Wells?
H. G. Wells photo
H. G. Wells 142
English writer 1866–1946

Related quotes

Saddam Hussein photo

“The great duel, the mother of all battles has begun.… The dawn of victory nears as this great showdown begins!”

Saddam Hussein (1937–2006) Iraqi politician and President

Broadcast on Baghdad state radio, January 17, 1991.
Comment on the beginning of Desert Storm, quoted in Washington Post (17 January 1991) "Iraqi Leader Remains Defiant Following US-Led Air Attacks" by Nora Boustany

“I don't know if men will ever journey again, as we journeyed, to that intersection of latitude and longitude where a shell hangs forever — forever and yet not forever, in space and out of space — on the axis stretching through time from beginning to end.
From the dawn of the nebulae to the twilight of absolute entropy, when the framework of the cosmos has broken down into chaos, still that axis will stretch from dawn to dusk, from beginning to end. For as this world spins on an axis through space, so the sphere of time spins on its own axis.”

Henry Kuttner (1915–1958) American author

Source: The Time Axis (1949), Ch. 1 : Encounter In Rio

Albert Pike photo

“All hypotheses scientifically probable are the last gleams of the twilight of knowledge, or its last shadows. Faith begins where Reason sinks exhausted.”

Albert Pike book Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry

Source: Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871), Ch. XXXII : Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret, p. 841
Context: All hypotheses scientifically probable are the last gleams of the twilight of knowledge, or its last shadows. Faith begins where Reason sinks exhausted. Beyond the human Reason is the Divine Reason, to our feebleness the great Absurdity, the Infinite Absurd, which confounds us and which we believe. For the Master, the Compass of Faith is above the Square of Reason; but both rest upon the Holy Scriptures and combine to form the Blazing Star of Truth.
All eyes do not see alike. Even the visible creation is not, for all who look upon it, of one form and one color. Our brain is a book printed within and without, and the two writings are, with all men, more or less confused.

Gene Roddenberry photo

“It isn't all over; everything has not been invented; the human adventure is just beginning.”

Gene Roddenberry (1921–1991) American television screenwriter and producer

“From the beginning, this culture - civilization - has been a culture of occupation.”

Derrick Jensen book Endgame

Vol. 1, pg. XI
Endgame (2006)

Kate Chopin photo

“A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her,—the light which, showing the way, forbids it.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Alan Watts photo

“Because you see it starts now, it didn't begin in the past, there was no past.”

Alan Watts (1915–1973) British philosopher, writer and speaker

On deep meditation and enlightenment that transcends temporal experiences and most notions of selfhoody
Alan Watts Teaches Meditation (1992)
Context: [Successful meditation brings about realizations:] That we are no longer this poor little stranger and afraid in a world it never made. But that you are this universe and you are creating it in every moment... Because you see it starts now, it didn't begin in the past, there was no past. See, if the universe began in the past when that happened it was now; see, but it's still now — and the universe is still beginning now, and it's trailing off like the wake of a ship from now, and that wake fades out so does the past. You can look back there to explain things, but the explanation disappears. You'll never find it there.... Things are not explained by the past, they are explained by what Happens Now. That Creates the past, and it begins here... That's the birth of responsibility.

“In the beginning was the Word.
In the end…past honor, past life, past caring…
In the end will be the Word.”

Dan Simmons book Hyperion

Source: Hyperion (1989), Chapter 3 (p. 233)

John Ruskin photo

“Let every dawn of morning be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.”

John Ruskin (1819–1900) English writer and art critic

Source: The Two Paths

Bill Gates photo

“Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning.”

Bill Gates (1955) American business magnate and philanthropist

Related topics