Quotes about the past

„I have never consciously separated casual users and hardcore gamers when I design a game. For the past 20 years, I have always been trying to make games so that anyone -- as many people as possible -- can enjoy them… I cannot help but say that I love my job of making games from the bottom of my heart.“

—  Takashi Tezuka video game designer 1960

Source: "In Conversation: Takashi Tezuka". http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jun2007/id20070629_013917.htm,Businessweek. Bloomberg L.P.(2007-06-29)
Quote

„This day is a day that is proud to me, having occupied the position that I did for the past twelve years, and been misunderstood by your race. This is the first opportunity I have had during that time to say that I am your friend. I am here a representative of the southern people, one more slandered and maligned than any man in the nation.“

—  Nathan Bedford Forrest Confederate Army general 1821 - 1877

1870s, Speech before the Pole-Bearers Association (1875)

„You can't undo the past but you can certainly not repeat it.“

—  Bruce Willis American actor, producer, and musician 1955

US Magazine. Issue 249.

„Psychology has a long past, yet its real history is short. For thousands of years it has existed and has been growing older; but in the earlier part of this period it cannot boast of any continuous progress toward a riper and richer development. In the fourth century before our era that giant thinker, Aristotle, built it up into an edifice comparing very favorably with any other science of that time. But this edifice stood without undergoing any noteworthy changes or extensions, well into the eighteenth or even the nineteenth century. Only in recent times do we find an advance, at first slow but later increasing in rapidity, in the development of psychology.“

—  Hermann Ebbinghaus German psychologist 1850 - 1909

Source: Psychology: An elementary textbook, 1908, p. 3: Partly cited in: Edwin Boring (1929) A History of Experimental Psychology p. ix

„I do not regret this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardships, help one another, and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past.“

—  Robert Falcon Scott Royal Navy officer and explorer 1868 - 1912

Journal, 29 March 1912 http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/museum/diaries/scottslastexpedition/
Context: We arrived within 11 miles of our old One Ton Camp with fuel for one hot meal and food for two days. For four days we have been unable to leave the tent - the gale howling about us. We are weak, writing is difficult, but for my own sake I do not regret this journey, which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardships, help one another, and meet death with as great a fortitude as ever in the past. We took risks, we knew we took them; things have come out against us, and therefore we have no cause for complaint, but bow to the will of Providence, determined still to do our best to the last.

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

—  Tom Hiddleston English actor, producer and musical performer 1981

„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 Yogi, a guru of Kriya Yoga and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship 1893 - 1952

„I would like that what I am doing is not lost. So I am trying in every possible way to drop all those things which in the past have been barriers for the revolution to continue and grow.“

—  Rajneesh Godman and leader of the Rajneesh movement 1931 - 1990

The Last Testament : Interviews with the World Press (1986)
Context: I would like that what I am doing is not lost. So I am trying in every possible way to drop all those things which in the past have been barriers for the revolution to continue and grow. I don't want anybody to stand between the individual and existence. No prayer, no priest... you alone are enough to face the sunrise, you don't need somebody to interpret for you what a beautiful sunrise it is... And this is my attitude: you are here, every individual is here, the whole existence is available. All that you need is just to be silent and listen to existence. There is no need of any religion, there is no need of any God, there is no need of any priesthood, there is no need of any organization. I trust in the individual categorically. Nobody up to now has trusted in the individual in such a way.

„Brazil is in a solid position. In the past, if the United States sneezed, we caught pneumonia. Today, if the United States sneezes, we sneeze too.“

—  Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Brazilian politician, 35th president of Brazil 1945

" Interview transcript: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/6d42ae3a-110b-11db-9a72-0000779e2340.html in: Financial Times, July 7, 2006

„This place makes me think about the mistakes I've made in the past… and I've made so many of them.“

—  Hatake Kakashi, book Naruto

To Yugao, about Obito's name engraved in the Memorial Stone

„I remember you said this war was a story of Lightwoods and Herondales and Fairchilds, and it is, and Blackthorns and Carstairs as well, and it's amazing to see them. But when I do, it's as if I see the past that stretches out behind them. I watch Jace Herondale play, and I see the ghosts that rise up in the music. Don't you?“

—  Cassandra Clare, The Mortal Instruments

Tessa Gray, to Brother Zachariah/Jem Carstairs, pg. 708
The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)

„Did you ever think that in a past life Alec was an old woman with ninety cats who was always yelling at the neighborhood kids to get off her lawn? Because I do“

—  Cassandra Clare, book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

„The past can't hurt you anymore, not unless you let it.“

—  Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

Source: V for Vendetta

„The history of the castle at Wiśnicz Nowy is enlivened by many legends. Many well-known artists visited the castle in centuries past. Till now, many elements of old architecture (towers, chapel) have survived, together with some details of interior design.“

—  Marek Żukow-Karczewski Polish historian, journalist and opinion journalist 1961

The castle of Kmita and Lubomirski at Wiśnicz Nowy, "Aura" 2, 1991-02, p. 18-20. http://agro.icm.edu.pl/agro/element/bwmeta1.element.agro-bd5a073d-07bd-4353-9edc-6bf8ea3d43c5?q=de70f1df-826d-4538-9cee-535aa9902521$5&qt=IN_PAGE

„Sensitiveness to beauty of the world continues, and efforts to preserve it were also made in the past.“

—  Marek Żukow-Karczewski Polish historian, journalist and opinion journalist 1961

Enchanted by beauty (three forgotten relations), "Aura" 1, 1998-01, p. 17-19. http://yadda.icm.edu.pl/yadda/element/bwmeta1.element.agro-article-d2f0773c-592e-4250-8f73-558234a9140e?q=3c417fdf-4051-4e84-83b2-9eb4fc33b1e0$1&qt=IN_PAGE

„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 Polish historian, journalist and opinion journalist 1961

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

„while the shadows like long fingers
over the haystacks that sweep past
keep shocking him
because he is riding backwards.“

—  Anne Carson Canadian poet 1950

"Father’s Old Blue Cardigan", Men in the Off Hours, Knopf (New York, NY), 2000.

„We are products of a past world where sensitivities to certain things were a matter of life or death.“

—  John D. Barrow British scientist 1952

The Artful Universe (1995)
Context: The Universe has imposed aspects of its structure upon us by the inevitability of the forces of Nature... In a world where adapters succeed, but non-adapters fail, one expects to find vestigial remnants... Many of these adaptations... give rise to a suite of curious byproducts, some of which have played a role in determining our aesthetic sense. We are products of a past world where sensitivities to certain things were a matter of life or death.<!-- Ch. 6, p.246

„When it comes to the past, everyone writes fiction.“

—  Stephen King, book Joyland

Source: Joyland