Quotes about the future

A collection of quotes on the topic of dreams, future, past, paste.

Best quotes about the future

Abraham Lincoln photo

“The best way to predict your future is to create it.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
Jim Morrison photo
Oscar Wilde photo
Oscar Wilde photo
Confucius photo

“Study the past if you would define the future.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
Albert Einstein photo

“I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Attributed in The Encarta Book of Quotations http://books.google.com/books?id=Af84fBmzmVYC&pg=PA305&dq=Belgenland to an interview on the Belgenland (December 1930), which was the ship on which he arrived in New York that month. According to The Ultimate Quotable Einstein by Alice Calaprice (2010), p. 18 http://books.google.com/books?id=G_iziBAPXtEC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA18#v=onepage&q&f=false, the quote also appears as "Aphorism, 1945-1946" in the Einstein Archives 36-570. Calaprice speculates that "perhaps it was recalled later and inserted into the archives under the later date." According to a snippet on Google Books, the phrase '"I never think of the future," he said. "It comes soon enough."' appears in The Literary Digest: Volume 107 on p. 29, in an article titled "We May Not 'Get' Relativity, But We Like Einstein" from 27 December 1930 http://books.google.com/books?id=T0A_AAAAMAAJ&q=%22we+like+einstein%22#search_anchor. The snippet http://books.google.com/books?id=T0A_AAAAMAAJ&q=belgenland+%22I+never+think+of+the+future%22+%22it+comes+soon+enough%22#search_anchor also discusses the "welcome to Professor Einstein on the Belgenland" in New York
1930s

Victor Hugo photo

“There is nothing like a dream to create the future.”

Source: Les Misérables

Wayne W. Dyer photo
Percy Bysshe Shelley photo

“Fear not the future, weep not for the past.”

Canto XI, st. 18
The Revolt of Islam (1817)

Corrie ten Boom photo

Quotes about the future

José Baroja photo
José Baroja photo
José Baroja photo
Bob Marley photo

“Only once in your life, I truly believe, you find someone who can completely turn your world around. You tell them things that you’ve never shared with another soul and they absorb everything you say and actually want to hear more. You share hopes for the future, dreams that will never come true, goals that were never achieved and the many disappointments life has thrown at you. When something wonderful happens, you can’t wait to tell them about it, knowing they will share in your excitement. They are not embarrassed to cry with you when you are hurting or laugh with you when you make a fool of yourself. Never do they hurt your feelings or make you feel like you are not good enough, but rather they build you up and show you the things about yourself that make you special and even beautiful. There is never any pressure, jealousy or competition but only a quiet calmness when they are around. You can be yourself and not worry about what they will think of you because they love you for who you are. The things that seem insignificant to most people such as a note, song or walk become invaluable treasures kept safe in your heart to cherish forever. Memories of your childhood come back and are so clear and vivid it’s like being young again. Colours seem brighter and more brilliant. Laughter seems part of daily life where before it was infrequent or didn’t exist at all. A phone call or two during the day helps to get you through a long day’s work and always brings a smile to your face. In their presence, there’s no need for continuous conversation, but you find you’re quite content in just having them nearby. Things that never interested you before become fascinating because you know they are important to this person who is so special to you. You think of this person on every occasion and in everything you do. Simple things bring them to mind like a pale blue sky, gentle wind or even a storm cloud on the horizon. You open your heart knowing that there’s a chance it may be broken one day and in opening your heart, you experience a love and joy that you never dreamed possible. You find that being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure that’s so real it scares you. You find strength in knowing you have a true friend and possibly a soul mate who will remain loyal to the end. Life seems completely different, exciting and worthwhile. Your only hope and security is in knowing that they are a part of your life.”

Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician
Tom Hiddleston photo
Marek Żukow-Karczewski photo

“For several years we have witnessed climatic irregularities that prompt fear and anxiety about the conditions of our future existence. However, the climatic anomalies occurred also in the past when the blame for environmental destruction could hardly be put on humans.”

Marek Żukow-Karczewski (1961) Polish historian, journalist and opinion journalist

Weather anomalies in Poland's past, "Aura" 7, 1990-07, p. 6-8. http://yadda.icm.edu.pl/yadda/element/bwmeta1.element.agro-545c16f1-b48e-46e2-a0d2-6a4babeeeea0?q=89e2d267-8e35-4c74-b570-25a195714d27$8&qt=IN_PAGE

Harry Styles photo

“How can you say young girls don't get it? They're our future. Our future doctors, lawyers, mothers, presidents, they kind of keep the world going.”

Harry Styles (1994) English singer, songwriter, and actor

Interview by Cameron Crowe in Rolling Stone (18 April 2017) http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/harry-styles-opens-up-about-famous-flings-honest-new-lp-w476928
Context: Who's to say that young girls who like pop music – short for popular, right? – have worse musical taste than a 30-year-old hipster guy? That's not up to you to say. Music is something that's always changing. There's no goal posts. Young girls like the Beatles. You gonna tell me they're not serious? How can you say young girls don't get it? They're our future. Our future doctors, lawyers, mothers, presidents, they kind of keep the world going. Teenage-girl fans – they don't lie. If they like you, they're there. They don't act 'too cool.' They like you, and they tell you. Which is sick.

Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Tupac Shakur photo
Corrie ten Boom photo
Carl Sagan photo

“Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar", every "supreme leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”

Source: Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994), p. 8, Supplemental image at randi.org http://www.randi.org/images/122801-BlueDot.jpg

Malcolm X photo

“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”

Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist

Speech at Founding Rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (28 June 1964), as quoted in By Any Means Necessary (1970)
By any means necessary: speeches, interviews, and a letter (1970)
Variant: The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.
Source: Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers' Power
Context: Education is an important element in the struggle for human rights. It is the means to help our children and our people rediscover their identity and thereby increase their self respect. Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs only to the people who prepare for it today.

George Orwell photo
Maya Angelou photo
Stephen Hawking photo
P. W. Botha photo

“We do not know what tomorrow will bring. We are not prophets. This is a step in the dark. We can only proceed into the future with faith.”

P. W. Botha (1916–2006) South African prime minister

As prime minister, introducing the 4th Amendment to the Constitution Bill, 23 May 1980, which envisaged a tricameral corporate federation. Cited in The Star, and Pieter-Dirk Uys, 1987, PW Botha in his own words, p. 27

Elon Musk photo

“It would be an incredible adventure. And life needs to be more than just solving every day problems. You need to wake up and be excited about the future”

Elon Musk (1971) South African-born American entrepreneur

On "eyeing" for Mars, IAC 2016 meeting, presentation on sustainable Mars colonization.

Paramahansa Yogananda photo
Jim Carrey photo
Paul Watson photo

“It's dangerous & humiliating. The whalers killed whales while green peace watched. Now, you don't walk by a child that is being abused, you don't walk by a kitten that is being kicked to death and do nothing. So I find it abhorrent to sit there and watch a whale being slaughtered and do nothing but "bear witness" as they call it. I think it was best illustrated a few years ago, the contradictions that we have, when a ranger in Zimbabwe shot and killed a poacher that was about to kill a black rhinoceros and uh human rights groups around the world said "how dare you? Take a human life to protect an animal". I think the rangers' answer to that really illustrated a hypocrisy. He said "Ya know, if I lived in, If I was a police officer in Herrari and a man ran out of Bark Place Bank with a bag of money and I shot him in the head in front of everybody and killed him, you'd pin a medal on me and call me a national hero. Why is that bag of paper more valued than the future heritage of this nation?" This is our values. WE fight, WE kill, WE risk our lives for things we believe in… Imagine going into Mecca, walk up to the black stone and spit on it. See how far you get. You’re not going to get very far. You’re going to be torn to pieces. Walk into Jerusalem, walk up to that wailing wall with a pick axe, start whacking away. See how far you’re going to get, somebody is going to put a bullet in your back. And everybody will say you deserved it. Walk into the Vatican with a hammer, start smashing a few statues. See how far you’re going to get. Not very far. But each and every day, ya know, people go into the most beautiful, most profoundly sacred cathedrals of this planet, the rainforests of the Amazonia, the redwood forests of California, the rainforests of Indonesia, and totally desecrate & destroy these cathedrals with bulldozers, chainsaws and how do we respond to that? Oh, we write a few letters and protest; we dress up in animal costumes with picket signs and jump up and down; but if the rainforests of Amazonia and redwoods of California, were as, or had as much value to us as a chunk of old meteorite in Mecca, a decrepit old wall in Jerusalem or a piece of old marble in the Vatican, we would literally rip those pieces limb from limb for the act of blasphemy that we’re committing but we won’t do that because nature is an abstraction, wilderness is an abstraction. It has no value in our anthropocentric world where the only thing we value is that which is created by humans.”

Paul Watson (1950) Canadian environmental activist
Karl Popper photo
Leon Trotsky photo

“Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.”

Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Marxist revolutionary from Russia

Trotsky's Testament (1940)
Context: Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.

Jane Goodall photo

“The greatest danger to our future is apathy.”

Jane Goodall (1934) British primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist

"The Power of One", Time Magazine (26 August 2002)

Paramahansa Yogananda photo
Nikola Tesla photo

“Let the future tell the truth and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.”

Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) Serbian American inventor

On patent controversies regarding the invention of Radio and other things, as quoted in "A Visit to Nikola Tesla" by Dragislav L. Petković in Politika (April 1927); as quoted in Tesla, Master of Lightning (1999) by Margaret Cheney, Robert Uth, and Jim Glenn, p. 73 ISBN 0760710058 </small> ; also in Tesla: Man Out of Time (2001) by Margaret Cheney, p. 230 <small> ISBN 0743215362

Ronald Reagan photo

“The future doesn't belong to the faint-hearted. It belongs to the brave.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

As quoted in Who was Ronald Reagan? (2004), by Joyce Milton, p. 85
Post-presidency (1989&ndash;2004)
Context: I know it's hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the faint-hearted. It belongs to the brave.

Paul Valéry photo

“The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.”

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

Unsourced

Laozi photo

“When I am anxious it is because I am living in the future. When I am depressed it is because I am living in the past.”

Laozi (-604) semi-legendary Chinese figure, attributed to the 6th century, regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching and fou…

Attributed to "Jimmy R." in Days of Healing, Days of Joy (1987)
Misattributed
Source: link https://books.google.com/books?id=7QNk4eNvS44C&pg=PA175&lpg=PA175&dq=%22days+of+healing+days+of+joy%22+%22jimmy+r%22&source=bl&ots=C-jAUVg8y8&sig=fB9m-eQ1IvtjJV6Ncz8mZ30RRHo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAGoVChMIrYnZyNDlyAIVV_5jCh07uQOs#v=onepage&q=%22days%20of%20healing%20days%20of%20joy%22%20%22jimmy%20r%22&f=false

George Orwell photo
Max Planck photo

“We have no right to assume that any physical laws exist, or if they have existed up to now, that they will continue to exist in a similar manner in the future.”

Max Planck (1858–1947) German theoretical physicist

The Universe in the Light of Modern Physics (1931)

Alexis Karpouzos photo
Albert Einstein photo
Robert Walser photo
Tennessee Williams photo

“The future is called "perhaps," which is the only possible thing to call the future. And the important thing is not to allow that to scare you.”

Source: "The Past, the Present and the Perhaps," http://books.google.com/books?id=mTRaAAAAMAAJ&q=%22The+future+is+called+perhaps+which+is+the+only+possible+thing+to+call+the+future+And+the+important+thing+is+not+to+allow+that+to+scare+you%22&pg=PA7#v=onepage introduction to Orpheus Descending (1957)

James Joyce photo
Robert A. Heinlein photo
Adolf Hitler photo

“He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party
Thich Nhat Hanh photo

“The best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present moment.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Living Buddha, Living Christ

Christopher Paolini photo
Mary Pope Osborne photo
Robert Penn Warren photo
Maria Montessori photo
H.P. Lovecraft photo

“For those who relish speculation regarding the future, the tale of supernatural horror provides an interesting field.”

H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American author

Source: The Annotated Supernatural Horror in Literature: Revised and Enlarged

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu photo
Joe Strummer photo

“Everyone has got to realise you can't hold onto the past if you want any future. Each second should lead to the next one.”

Joe Strummer (1952–2002) British musician, singer, actor and songwriter

Interview for Sounds Magazine on 17 July 1982. [Armed Combat, Sounds Magazine, 17 July 1982]

Ernesto Che Guevara photo
Chinmayananda Saraswati photo

“Disappointment can come only to those who make appointments with the future.”

Chinmayananda Saraswati (1916–1993) Indian spiritual teacher

Quotations from Gurudev’s teachings, Chinmya Mission Chicago
Variant: Disappointment can come only to those who make appointments with the future.

Eckhart Tolle photo
Hans-Hermann Hoppe photo
Leon Trotsky photo
Maria Montessori photo

“If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man's future.”

Maria Montessori (1870–1952) Italian pedagogue, philosopher and physician

Part I : The Child's Part in World Reconstruction, p. 4
The Absorbent Mind (1949)

Brian Cox (physicist) photo

“As a fraction of the lifespan of the universe as measured from the beginning to the evaporation of the last black hole, life as we know it is only possible for one-thousandth of a billion billion billionth, billion billion billionth, billion billion billionth, of a percent (10^-84). And that's why, for me, the most astonishing wonder of the universe isn't a star or a planet or a galaxy. It isn't a thing at all. It's an instant in time. And that time is now. Humans have walked the earth for just the shortest fraction of that briefest of moments in deep time. But in our 200,000 years on this planet we've made remarkable progress. It was only 2,500 years ago that we believed that the sun was a god and measured its orbit with stone towers built on the top of a hill. Today the language of curiosity is not sun gods, but science. And we have observatories that are almost infinitely more sophisticated than those towers, that can gaze out deep into the universe. And perhaps even more remarkably through theoretical physics and mathematics we can calculate what the universe will look like in the distant future. And we can even make concrete predictions about its end. And I believe that it's only by continuing our exploration of the cosmos and the laws of nature that govern it that we can truly understand ourselves and our place in this universe of wonders.”

Brian Cox (physicist) (1968) English physicist and former musician

Conclusion in Wonders of the Universe - Destiny

Leonard Bernstein photo

“A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future.”

Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist

Leonard Bernstein, statement of 1953, quoted in A Wonderful Life : 50 Eulogies to Lift the Spirit (2006) by Cyrus M. Copeland, p. 190

Donald J. Trump photo
Henri Fayol photo
Richard Wurmbrand photo
Cannonball Adderley photo
Mikhail Lermontov photo
Hirohito photo

“Unite your total strength, to be devoted to construction for the future.”

Gyokuon-hōsō (1945)
Context: Unite your total strength, to be devoted to construction for the future. Cultivate the ways of rectitude, foster nobility of spirit, and work with resolution — so that you may enhance the innate glory of the Imperial State and keep pace with the progress of the world.

Pericles photo

“Future ages will wonder at us, as the present age wonders at us now.”

Pericles (-494–-429 BC) Greek statesman, orator, and general of Athens

As quoted in Eternal Greece (1961) by Rex Warner, p. 34
Context: Future ages will wonder at us, as the present age wonders at us now. We do not need the praises of a Homer, or of anyone else whose words may delight us for the moment, but the estimation of facts will fall short of what is really true.

Alexander Rybak photo
Keanu Reeves photo
Nathuram Godse photo
Jacque Fresco photo
Jigme Singye Wangchuck photo
Charles Thomson photo

“Let the world admire the supposed wisdom and valor of our great men. Perhaps they may adopt the qualities that have been ascribed to them, and thus good may be done. I shall not undeceive future generations.”

Charles Thomson (1729–1824) American patriot leader (1729-1824)

Remarks on his abandonment of a personal account of the early history of the United States and the American Revolution, as quoted by Benjamin Rush in his memoirs.

Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
José Baroja photo
George Orwell photo
George Orwell photo
George Orwell photo
Noam Chomsky photo
Seth Godin photo

“The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there.
People will follow.”

Seth Godin (1960) American entrepreneur, author and public speaker

Source: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

Christopher Paolini photo
George Orwell photo
Darren Shan photo
George Orwell photo
George Orwell photo
Jonathan Edwards photo

“Grace is the seed of glory, the dawning of glory in the heart, and therefore grace is the earnest of the future inheritance.”

Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) Christian preacher, philosopher, and theologian

Source: The Religious Affections

William Gibson photo

“The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed.”

William Gibson (1948) American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist and founder of the cyberpunk subgenre

He is reported to have first said this in an interview on Fresh Air, NPR (31 August 1993) { unverified http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1107153}, he repeated it, prefacing it with "As I've said many times…" in "The Science in Science Fiction" on Talk of the Nation, NPR (30 November 1999, Timecode 11:55) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1067220. See also The future has arrived... - Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/01/24/future-has-arrived/.

George Orwell photo

“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--forever.”

Variant: If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.
Source: 1984

Maria Montessori photo

“Within the child lies the fate of the future.”

Maria Montessori (1870–1952) Italian pedagogue, philosopher and physician
George Orwell photo
Alvin Toffler photo
Eugene O'Neill photo