“Things always seem fairer when we look back at them, and it is out of that inaccessible tower of the past that Longing leans and beckons.”

A Few Bits of Roman Mosaic.
Literary Essays, vol. I (1864-1890)

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James Russell Lowell175

American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat 1819–1891

Peter Benchley book Jaws

Source: Jaws

“Hence, as the line of sight to the upper part is the longer, it makes that part look as if it were leaning back. But when the members are inclined to the front, as described above, they will seem the beholder to be plumb and perpendicular.”

Vitruvius book De architectura

Source: De architectura (The Ten Books On Architecture) (~ 15BC), Book III, Chapter V, Sec. 13

“Cloud-made mountains towered,
Beckoning to me;
Visionary triremes
Talked about the sea…”

Nathalia Crane (1913–1998) American writer

The Janitor's Boy And Other Poems (1924)

“Look out how you use proud words.
When you let proud words go, it is not easy to call them back.
They wear long boots, hard boots.”

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American writer and editor

"Primer Lessons" (1922)

“Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it we do suddenly realize — sometimes with astonishment — how happy we had been.”

Nikos Kazantzakis book Zorba the Greek

Source: Zorba the Greek (1946), Ch. 6
Context: While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it we do suddenly realize — sometimes with astonishment — how happy we had been.

“When I reached thirty I looked back on my past.”

Miyamoto Musashi (1584–1645) Japanese martial artist, writer, artist

Go Rin No Sho (1645), Introduction
Context: When I reached thirty I looked back on my past. The previous victories were not due to my having mastered strategy. Perhaps it was natural ability, or the order of heaven, or that other schools' strategy was inferior. After that I studied morning and evening searching for the principle, and came to realise the Way of strategy when I was fifty.
Since then I have lived without following any particular Way. Thus with the virtue of strategy I practise many arts and abilities — all things with no teacher. To write this book I did not use the law of Buddha or the teachings of Confucius, neither old war chronicles nor books on martial tactics. I take up my brush to explain the true spirit of this Ichi school as it is mirrored in the Way of heaven and Kwannon. The time is the night of the tenth day of the tenth month, at the hour of the tiger.

“Looking back on things, the view always improves.”

Walt Kelly (1913–1973) American cartoonist

Impollutable Pogo (1970)