“The past is a ghost, the future a dream and all we ever have is now.”

Last update Aug. 5, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The past is a ghost, the future a dream and all we ever have is now." by Bill Cosby?

Bill Cosby photo

Bill Cosby61

American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activ… 1937

Related quotes

“Nothing ever does happen in the future and nothing ever has happened in the past; the only happening is in the present moment. And yet people everywhere are so wrapped up in the past and future that the present moment tends to be overlooked. Yet this present moment is the only moment of reality; everything else is imagination. Now is the only time we can live. We can't live in the past, although some attempt it, and we can't live in the future. We live now or not at all.”

Martin Cecil, 7th Marquess of Exeter (1909–1988) Marquess of Exeter

On Eagle's Wings, 1977, p. 159
As of a Trumpet, On Eagle's Wings

“Nothing has happened in the past; it happened in the Now. Nothing will ever happen in the future; it will happen in the Now.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Source: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

“I now spend a good part of my day dreaming of times past, present and future.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

90th Birthday Reflections (2007)
Context: I now spend a good part of my day dreaming of times past, present and future. As I try to survive on 15 hours sleep a day, I have plenty of time to enjoy vivid dreams. Being completely wheel-chaired doesn't stop my mind from roaming the universe — on the contrary!

“For me, art has neither past nor future. All I have ever made was for the present.”

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer

Quote in "Picasso", Hans L. C. Jaffe, Thames and Hudson Ltd
Attributed from posthumous publications

“Memories remake the past, dreams remake the future.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)

“In the emerging picture of mankind in the universe, the future (if it exists) will surely entail discoveries about space and time which will open up whole new perspectives in the relationship between mankind, mind, and the uni-verse.… But what is now? There is no such thing in physics; it is not even clear that ‘now’ could ever be described, let alone explained, in terms of physics.… Notions such as ‘the past,’ ‘the present’ and ‘the future’ seem to be more linguistic than physical.… There is no universal now, but only a personal one—a ‘here and now.’ This strongly suggests that we look to the mind, rather than to the physical world, as the origin of the division of time into past, present, and future.…There is none of this in physics.… No physical experiment has ever been performed to detect the passage of time. As soon as the objective world of reality is considered, the passage of time disappears like a ghost into the night.”

Paul Davies (1946) British physicist

Page 222, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521291514.
Space and Time in the Modern Universe (1977)

“Some of the best lessons we ever learn are learned from past mistakes. The error of the past is the wisdom and success of the future.”

“Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past.”

James Joyce Ulysses

Source: Ulysses

“The future is there," Cayce hears herself say, "looking back at us. Trying to make sense of the fiction we will have become. And from where they are, the past behind us will look nothing at all like the past we imagine behind us now.”

William Gibson book Pattern Recognition

Source: Pattern Recognition

“We are what the past has made us. We are what the future will make us. Live now. Right now.”

Tom Hiddleston (1981) English actor, producer and musical performer

Related topics