“A fine thing: suddenly to forget about one’s history, one’s past, to stop feeling that one’s present happiness is endangered by what one used to be.”
Source: Das Gewicht der Welt [The Weight of the World], p. 7
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Peter Handke9
Austrian writer, playwright and film director 1942Related quotes
Liz Phair (1967) American musician
On being open and vulnerable emotionally in music in “A Candid Conversation Between Liz Phair and Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan” https://pitchfork.com/features/interview/a-candid-conversation-between-liz-phair-and-snail-mails-lindsey-jordan/ in Pitchfork (2018 May 9)
James Baldwin book The Fire Next Time
Variant: To accept one’s past – one’s history – is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it. An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life like clay in a season of drought.
Source: The Fire Next Time
Javier Marías (1951) Spanish writer
Lo más intolerable es que se convierta en pasado quien uno recuerda como futuro.
Source: Mañana en la batalla piensa en mí [Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me] (1994), p. 126
“One can only forget about time by making use of it.”
Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) French poet
On ne peut oublier le temps qu'en s'en servant.
Journaux intimes (1864–1867; published 1887), Mon cœur mis à nu (1864)
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist
Thích Nhất Hạnh here quotes and interprets the "Ten Penetrations" of the Avatamsaka Sutra
The Sun My Heart (1996)
Context: The tenth penetration is, "All times penetrate one time. One time penetrates all times — past, present, and future. In one second, you can find the past, present, and future." In the past, you can see the present and the future. In the present, you can find the past and future. In the future, you can find the past and present. They "inter-contain" each other. Space contains time, time contains space. In the teaching of interpenetration, one determines the other, the other determines this one. When we realize our nature of interbeing, we will stop blaming and killing, because we know that we inter-are.