Quotes about the future

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

Best quotes about the future

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

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

“The future is uncertain but the end is always near.”

Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors

“Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“I like men who have a future and women who have a past.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

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

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

“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

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

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“Go for it now. The future is promised to no one.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

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

Percy Bysshe Shelley The Revolt of Islam

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

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”

Corrie ten Boom (1892–1983) Dutch resistance hero and writer

Jane Goodall quote: “The greatest danger to our future is apathy.”

Bob Marley quote: “My future is righteousness.”

Quotes about the future

“That work pride, that ridiculous work pride has put an end to his illusions, with those few illusions that he still had since at school they promised him a magnificent future just for entering university.”

José Baroja book No fue un catorce de febrero y otros cuentos

School, Universe

“They never noticed the one who, silently, sustained this story, chose the future, set the guidelines for their memories and desires.”

José Baroja book El curioso caso de la sombra que murió como un recuerdo y otros cuentos

Memory

“Before becoming godín, Jaime worked for a miserable 79 mexican pesos an hour as a subject professor in one of the many universities in Guadalajara; very little for any future aspirations and very little for any present aspirations.”

José Baroja book Sueño en Guadalajara y otros cuentos

Universe

“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

love, Love, Life, People

“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

Past, Making love

“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

Fear, Past

“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.

World, Girl

“One book makes a complete religion. Let the future authors aim for quality rather than quantity.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Religion, Books

“There's gon' be some stuff you gon' see
that's gon' make it hard to smile in the future.
But through whatever you see,
through all the rain and the pain,
you gotta keep your sense of humor.
You gotta be able to smile through all this bullshit.
Remember that.”

Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor

Pain, Smile, Sense

“This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see.”

Corrie ten Boom book The Hiding Place

Source: The Hiding Place

Faith, God, Past, Personality

“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.”

Carl Sagan book Pale Blue Dot

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

Love, Life, World, Religion

“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.

Graduation, People, Education

“The future's too bright to dwell on the past. Life moves fast, run faster.”

Frank Iero (1981) American musician

Life, Past

“My reign is not only from this generation, but including the ones to come in the near future.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

Past

“People whose history and future were threatened each day by extinction considered that it was only by divine intervention that they were able to live at all. I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at a commensurate speed.”

Maya Angelou book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Source: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Life, God, People, History

“If time travel is possible, where are the tourists from the future?”

Stephen Hawking book A Brief History of Time

Source: A Brief History of Time

Travel, Time

“The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.”

Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) Serbian American inventor

Deep

“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

Faith

“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.

Life, Problem

“forget the past, for it is gone from your domain! forget the future, for it is beyond your reach! control the present! Live supremely well now! This is the way of the wise…”

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) Yogi, a guru of Kriya Yoga and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship

Way, Past, Forgetting

“You could spend your whole life imagining ghosts, worrying about the pathway to the future but all there will ever be is what's happening here and the decisions we make in this moments which are based in either love or fear. So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality. What we really want seems impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect so we never dared the universe for it. I'm saying I'm the proof that you can ask the universe for it. My father could have been a great comedian, but he didn't believe that that was possible for him and so he made a conservative choice instead, he got a safe job as an accountant and when I was 12 years old he was let go from that safe job and our family had to do whatever we could do to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you could fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”

Jim Carrey (1962) Canadian-American actor, comedian, and producer

Love, Life, Fear, Family

“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

Life, Death, Money, People

“Do not allow your dreams of a beautiful world to lure you away from the claims of men who suffer here and now. Our fellow men have a claim to our help; no generation must be sacrificed for the sake of future generations, for the sake of an ideal of happiness that may never be realised.”

Karl Popper (1902–1994) Austrian-British philosopher of science

Utopia and Violence (1947)

Men, World, Beauty, Dreams

“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.

Life, Beauty, Evil

“The past is behind you and there is nothing you can do to change it. However, you are in total control of your future.

RJ Intindola – 1980 *”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

Past, Change

“The past is behind you and there is nothing you can do to change it. However, you are in total control of your future.

RJ Intindola – 1980 *”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

Past, Change

“Sometimes, one must travel the most difficult path alone; only then can they endure the more challenging journeys in the future.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1972

Travel

“So many people are most miserable these days.
The reason they find it so difficult to be happy is that they always view the past to be better than it was, the present dramatically worse than it is, and the future less resolute than it will be.
The idea of happiness is foreign to them.
Is this not something that is innate because babies are born with
"tabula rasa" which refers to the epistemological idea that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception. However I don't disagree with the doctrine of Innatism which holds that the mind is born already in possession of certain knowledge.
A smile, for instance is natural and innate!
So it is a combination of the two schools of thought.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Baby, Idea, Nature, Knowledge

“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)

Powerful

“Live each moment completely and the future will take care of itself. Fully enjoy the wonder and beauty of each moment.”

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) Yogi, a guru of Kriya Yoga and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship

Beauty

“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 ; also in Tesla: Man Out of Time (2001) by Margaret Cheney, p. 230 ISBN 0743215362

Truth

“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 (1989–2004)
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.

Heart

“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

Time

“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

Past

“So far as I can see, all political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

"London Letter" (December 1944), in Partisan Review (Winter 1945)

People, Way, Thinking, Past

“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)

Law

“Words are life. Words are light. Words are power. Words are energy. Words are truth. Words can enliven and words can also kill. Words can give hope, or plunge us into despair. People use words to build peace, and use words to make war. Words can create walls between cultures, religions, and nations. And words can also build bridges. The existence of an individual, a family, a community, a country, and our planet is being led to good or to evil through the power of the words we speak. The words we speak are responsible for everything that happens in this world. We, therefore, must be responsible for the words we speak. On behalf of future generations, I hope that each of us will do all we can to speak only bright, light-filled words, so that one day, our descendants will be born into a world filled with light. There is no time to lose. Starting at this very moment, I hope all of us will take a close look at the words we have been using and make constant efforts to fill them with brightness.”

Alexis Karpouzos (1967)

Source: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14108295.alexis_karpouzos

Despair, Family, Peace, Religion

“Past is dead
Future is uncertain;
Present is all you have,
So eat, drink and live merry.”

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

Drink, Past, Dead

“I don't want a future, I want a present. To me this appears of greater value. You have a future only when you have no present, and when you have a present, you forget to even think about the future.”

Robert Walser (1878–1956) Swiss writer

Source: The Tanners

Thinking, Appearance, Forgetting

“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.”

Tennessee Williams Orpheus Descending

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)

“When you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future.”

Dian Fossey (1932–1985) American zoologist, gorilla researcher

Life, Past

“I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.”

James Joyce (1882–1941) Irish novelist and poet

“A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.”

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love

Source: Time Enough for Love (1973)

History, Past

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

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

Youth

“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

Way

“Live in the present, remember the past, and fear not the future, for it doesn't exist and never shall. There is only now.”

Christopher Paolini book Eldest

Saphira
Source: Eldest (2005)

Fear, Past

“There is neither Past nor Future. There is only the Present.”

Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) Indian religious leader

Past

“The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.”

Mike Murdock (1946) American televangelist

Motivational, Success, Deep, Inspirational

“I love teaching. It's a job that lasts forever. Whatever you teach children today travels with them far into the future.”

Mary Pope Osborne (1949) American children's writer

Source: Twister on Tuesday

Love, Children, Travel

“If you could not accept the past and its burden, there was no future, for without one there cannot be the other, and […] if you could accept the past you might hope for the future, for only out of the past can you make the future.”

Robert Penn Warren book All the King's Men

Source: All the King's Men (1946)

Hope, Past

“Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future.”

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

Children

“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

“I started with an impulse of my heart, with that instinct of defense which even the least of the worms has, not with the instinct of personal self-preservation, but of defense of the race to which I belong. This is why I have always had the feeling that the whole race rests on our shoulders, the living, and those who died for the Fatherland, and our entire future, and that the race struggles and speaks through us, that the hostile flock, however huge, in relation to this historical entity, is only a handful of human detritus which we will disperse and defeat… The individual in the framework and in the service of his race, the race in the framework and in the service of God and of the laws of the divinity: those who will understand these things will win even though they are alone. Those who will not understand will be defeated.”

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (1899–1938) Romanian politician

For My Legionaries: The Iron Guard (1936), Nation and Culture

God, Hostility, Law, Feeling

“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]

Past

“Of course there are dangers in the present situation, and not only that of dogmatism, not only that of weakening the ties with the masses midway in the great task. There is also the danger of weaknesses. If a man thinks that dedicating his entire life to the revolution means, that in return he should not have such worries as that his son lacks certain things, or that his children's shoes are worn out, or that his family lacks some necessity, then he is entering into rationalisations which open his mind to infection by the seeds of future corruption.
In our case we have maintained that our children should have or should go without those things that the children of the average man have or go without, and that our families should understand this and strive to uphold this standard. The revolution is made through man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit day by day.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

Man and Socialism in Cuba (1965)

Life, Children, Family, Shoe

“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.

Disappointment

“The future is usually imagined as either better or worse than the present. If the imagined future is better, it gives you hope or pleasurable anticipation. If it is worse, it creates anxiety. Both are illusory.”

Eckhart Tolle book The Power of Now

The Power of Now (1997)

Pleasure, Hope, Imagination

“A member of the human race who is completely incapable of understanding the higher productivity of labor performed under a division of labor based on private property is not properly speaking a person… but falls instead into the same moral category as an animal – of either the harmless sort (to be domesticated and employed as a producer or consumer good, or to be enjoyed as a “free good”) or the wild and dangerous one (to be fought as a pest). On the other hand, there are members of the human species who are capable of understanding the [value of the division of labor] but…who knowingly act wrongly… [B]esides having to be tamed or even physically defeated [they] must also be punished… to make them understand the nature of their wrongdoings and hopefully teach them a lesson for the future.”

Hans-Hermann Hoppe book Democracy: The God That Failed

Source: Democracy: The God That Failed (2001), P.173

Understanding, Nature, Animals, Personality

“Natasha and I said more than once that one may arrive at such a physical condition that it would be better to cut short one's own life or, more correctly, the too slow process of dying … But whatever may be the circumstances of my death I shall die with unshaken faith in the communist future. This faith in man and in his future gives me even now such power of resistance as cannot be given by any religion.”

Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Marxist revolutionary from Russia

Trotsky's Testament (1940)

Life, Death, Faith, Religion

“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)

Education, Hope, Knowledge

“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

Life, God, Law, Star

“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

Night

“My opponent asks her supporters to recite a three word loyalty pledge. It reads, "I'm with her." I choose to recite a different pledge. My pledge reads, "I’m with you – the American people." I am your voice. So to every parent who dreams for their child, and every child who dreams for a better future, I say these words to you tonight: I’m with you, and I will fight for you, and I will win for you. To all Americans tonight, in all of our cities and towns, I make this promise: We will make America proud again, we will make America strong again, we will make America safe again, and we will Make America Great Again! God bless you and good night! I love you!”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2010s, 2016, July, 2016 Republican National Convention (21 July 2016)

Love, God, People, Dreams

“Administration, which calls for the application of wide knowledge and many personal qualities, is above all the art of handling men, and in this art, as in many others, it is practice that makes perfect. This is one of the reasons why we should release our future engineers for practical work as early as possible; there are many drawbacks to staying too long at school.”

Henri Fayol (1841–1925) Developer of Fayolism

Source: Henri Fayol addressed his colleagues in the mineral industry, 1900, p. 909

Men, School, Art, Knowledge

“When you speak in His presence about your past sins, He does not even understand your language. Only the present and the future have any interest for Him... I have committed crimes and have blood on my conscience. I told Jesus about it again and again. But because He had long ago washed all this away, there was no possibility of communication between us. He did not understand what I was talking about.”

Richard Wurmbrand (1909–2001) Romanian Christian minister of Jewish descent

If Prison Walls Could Speak (1972)

Communication, Understanding, Past

“There's no future without the past and anybody who doesn't really understand where jazz has come from has no right to try to direct where it's going.”

Cannonball Adderley (1928–1975) American jazz alto saxophonist

Interviewed by the "Chicago SEED", November 1968

Understanding, Past

“The chain of young life is broken,
The journey is ended, the hour has struck, it is time to leave,
Time to go where there is no future,
No past, no eternity, no years;
Where there are no expectations, no passions,
No bitter tears, no fame, no honour;
Where memory sleeps deeply
And the heart in its narrow coffin home
Does not feel the worm gnawing it.”

Mikhail Lermontov (1814–1841) Russian writer, poet and painter

"Death" (1830 or 1831)
Poems

Life, Feeling, Home, Tear

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

Hirohito Jewel Voice Broadcast

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.

“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.

Age

“I love to live in the past, with a little hope for the future… ”

Alexander Rybak (1986) Norwegian singer, actor, violinist, composer, pianist

Love, Hope, Past

“The recognition of the law of cause and effect, also known as karma, is a fundamental key to understand how you’ve created your world, with actions of your body, speech, and mind. When you truly understand karma, then you realize you are responsible for everything in your life. It is incredibly empowering to know that your future is in your hands.”

Keanu Reeves (1964) Canadian actor, director, producer and musician

Understanding, Law, World, Life

“I sat brooding intensely on the atrocities perpetrated on Hinduism and its dark and deadly future if left to face Islam outside and Gandhi inside, and (…) decided all of a sudden to take the extreme step against Gandhi.”

Nathuram Godse (1910–1949) Assassin of Mahatma Gandhi

Nathuram Godse: Why I Assassinated Gandhi (1993)

“The conflicts today with our fellow human beings are over opposing values and limited access to the necessities of life. If we manage to arrive at a saner future civilization, the conflicts will be against problems common to all humans.”

Jacque Fresco (1916–2017) American futurist and self-described social engineer

Designing the Future (2007)

Problem, Life

“...children are our treasures. They hold the promise of the future and therefore, it is only right that they should be given every opportunity to develop their physical, mental and spiritual potential to the fullest extent in an environment free of want and free of fear..."”

Jigme Singye Wangchuck (1955) King of Bhutan 1972–2006

Message during the international year of the child, 28 July 1979, quoted in The Talking Mountains (26 Oct 2015)

Fear, Children

“Forgiveness does not change the past but it does enlarge the future.”

Paul Boese

Happy, Funny, Relationship, Forgiveness

“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.

World, Wisdom, Men

“The present is short lived. Difficult to define it without disturbing the past and the future events.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Past

“Your words and actions must go hand-in-hand, so as to avoid any type of contradiction in the near future.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“I love to see a happy child.
They find magic in everything.
This gives me pleasure and hope for the future.
A well-adjusted individual is a prodigious asset to the world!”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Happiness, Hope, Pleasure, World

“Let us not ponder upon the past. It will simply take us backwards.
Look to the future and start fresh.
Put all of your energy and thoughts into a brand new unblemished tomorrow.
It is of the essence.
Don't dream of something you have no idea about.
Don't drive in reverse.
The past is full of cobwebs and dust.
The future is new and clean.
Don't imagine that the past is better than where you are right now.
Renew.
Move forward.
If you are in a bad place, change it for the better, brighter and new you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Imagination, Idea, Change, Past

“The moon is red, sensing the future, it has dressed up for its gala, or the Devil has decorated it.”

José Baroja book Un hijo de perra y otros cuentos

Sense

“We are the dead. Our only true life is in the future. We shall take part in it as handfuls of dust and splinters of bone. But how far away that future may be, there is no knowing.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

Life, Parting, Dead

“How could you communicate with the future? It was impossible. Either the future would resemble the present in which case it would not listen to him, or it would be different from it, and his predicament would be meaningless.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

Communication

“To hang on from day to day and from week to week, spinning out a present that had no future, seemed an unconquerable instinct, just as one's lungs will always draw the next breath so long as there is air available.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

Drawing

“Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Optimism

“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

Leadership, People, Secret, Painting

“Do not dwell on what once was, but rather look forward and ponder how you can make the future brighter”

Christopher Paolini book Eragon

Source: Eragon

“Those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

Past

“A world of "if"s, but it would make no difference. If I could go back in time… but I couldn't. The past was behind me. The best thing now would be to stop looking over my shoulder. It was time to forget the past and look to the present and future.”

Darren Shan book Cirque du Freak

Source: A Living Nightmare

World, Time, Past, Forgetting

“We are the dead. Our only true life is in the future.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

Life, Dead

“He felt as though he were wandering in the forests of the sea bottom, lost in a monstrous world where he himself was the monster. He was alone. The past was dead, the future was unimaginable”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

World, Past, Sea, Dead

“How could you make appeal to the future when not a trace of you, not even an anonymous word scribbled on a piece of paper, could physically survive?”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

“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

Heart

“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/.

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

George Orwell book 1984

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

Imagination

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

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

Fate

“To the past, or to the future. To an age when thought is free. From the Age of Big Brother, from the Age of the Thought Police, from a dead man - greetings!”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

Age, Past, Dead