Quotes about the past

„The explorers of the past were great men and we should honour them. But let us not forget that their spirit lives on.“

—  Edmund Hillary New Zealand mountaineer 1919 - 2008

Sir Edmund Hillary : King Of The World
Context: The explorers of the past were great men and we should honour them. But let us not forget that their spirit lives on. It is still not hard to find a man who will adventure for the sake of a dream or one who will search, for the pleasure of searching, not for what he may find.

„That a deep-rooted feeling of discontent pervades the masses, none can deny; that there is a just cause for it, must be admitted. The old cry, “These agitators are stirring up a feeling of dissatisfaction among working men and they should be suppressed,” will not avail now. Every thinking person knows that the agitator did not throw two millions of men out of employment. The man that reads such paragraphs as this will not lay the blame of it at the door of the agitator:
“Mrs. Sarah Jane Geary, an Englishwoman, residing in this city, committed suicide a few days since. Her husband is a miner, and, owing to the frequent suspensions of business in the mines during the past winter, his meager earnings were insufficient to support the family. The fact preyed on Mrs. Geary’s mind, and she resolved to end her life, that her children might receive her share of the food, otherwise they would go hungry.”“

—  Terence V. Powderly American mayor 1849 - 1924

"The Army of the Discontented," http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=nora;cc=nora;g=moagrp;xc=1;q1=The%20Army%20of%20the%20Discontented;rgn=full%20text;cite1=Powderly;cite1restrict=author;view=image;seq=0381;idno=nora0140-4;node=nora0140-4%3A8 North American Review, vol. 140, whole no. 341 (April 1885), p. 371.

„I am strong. I lived through a divorce, separation from my family. I never let it break me down. I’m not an alcoholic. I’ve never smoked, I’ve never done drugs. I’ve floated through the disaster of my past clean. I arrived here undamaged.“

—  Tina Turner singer, dancer, actress, and author 1939

Tina Turner is a soul survivor http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/music/141823/Tina-Turner-is-a-soul-survivor, Daily Express, 22th of November 2009

„It is useless for you to ask me single facts. Whatever has been committed against Italy and the Italians for the past ten years was willed and permitted by me, whenever I did not personally take part in the acts themselves. … The raids, too, were ordered by me and some of them carried out by me.“

—  Omar Mukhtar Libyan resistance leader 1858 - 1931

Trial proceedings (15 September 1931)

„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)

„Falling down ain't falling down,
If you don't cry when you hit the floor,
It's called the past cause I'm getting past,
And I ain't nothing like I was before,
You ought to see me now“

—  Alicia Keys American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress 1981

„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 *“

—  RJ Intindola (Gandolfo)

„In the past the man has been first; in the future the system must be first. This in no sense, however, implies that great men are not needed. On the contrary, the first object of any good system must be that of developing first-class men; and under systematic management the best man rises to the top more certainly and more rapidly than ever before.“

—  Frederick Winslow Taylor American mechanical engineer and tennis player 1856 - 1915

Source: Principles of Scientific Management, 1911, p. 7: Introduction.

„The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.“

—  Immanuel Kant German philosopher 1724 - 1804

„Everything that is past is either a learning experience to grow on, a beautiful memory to reflect on, or a motivating factor to act upon.“

—  Denis Waitley American writer 1933

„Ashoka’s emblem of the Amlaki will be seen on the cornices of the Institute, and towering above all is the symbol of thunderbolt. It was the RishiDadhichi, the pure and blameless, who offered his life that the divine weapon, the thunderbolt, might be fashioned out of his bones to smite evil and exalt righteousness. It is but half of the Amlaki that we can offer now. But the past shall be reborn in a yet nobler future. We stand here today and resume work tomorrow, so that by the efforts of our lives and our unshaken faith in the future we may all help to build the greater India yet to be.“

—  Jagadish Chandra Bose Bengali polymath, physicist, biologist, botanist and archaeologist 1858 - 1937

Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose in Vijayaprasara

„The past is always with us, for it feeds the present.“

—  Ruskin Bond British Indian writer 1934

Source: A Town Called Dehra

„Tattoos are interesting, but at the same time they are also a mask – you are exhibiting your past life on your body.“

—  Keanu Reeves Canadian actor, director, producer and musician 1964

„One of the very few things that I know I believe strongly is that we must learn how to make a better world out of usable pasts rather than dreaming of infinite futures. It’s a very late-Enlightenment view that says that the only way to make a better future is to believe that the future will be better. Smarter people than me used to believe very differently and I think it is time to listen to them once again.“

—  Tony Judt British historian 1948 - 2010

in Tony Judt: the last interview http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/tony-judt-interview by Peter Jukes (2010)

„As a matter of fact," the other voice went on, "if you do tie her up from time to time, or whip her just a little, and she begins to like it, that’s no good either. You have to get past the pleasure stage, until you reach the stage of tears.“

—  Pauline Réage, book Story of O

Source: Story of O

„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

„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

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

—  George Orwell, book 1984

Source: 1984

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

—  Bill Cosby American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist 1937