Quotes about the past

„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

„Past boldness is no assurance of future boldness. Boldness demands continual reliance on God's spirit.“

—  Andy Stanley American Christian minister 1958

„We know a history so that we can learn from it. We learn our history because we understand the sacrifices that were made before, so that when we make sacrifices we understand we're doing it on behalf of future generations. There’s a proverb that says, “We have not inherited this land from our forebears, we have borrowed it from our children.” In other words, we study the past so it can guide us into the future, and inspire us to do better.“

—  Barack Obama 44th President of the United States of America 1961

2015, Remarks to the Kenyan People (July 2015)

„Never think about something wrong you did in the past. Always look forward with your head up high. Have no regrets.“

—  Jared Leto American actor and musician 1971

„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

„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

„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

„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 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

„I think that I have now said enough about the war, which is past now for over twenty-five years. I bow in reverence before the memory of the men who lost their lives in this war on both sides, and I think that we all hope that we never shall have such a war again.“

—  Karl Dönitz President of Germany; admiral in command of German submarine forces during World War II 1891 - 1980

The World at War: the Landmark Oral History from the Classic TV Series (2007) by Richard Holmes, Page 634.

„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

„To detach yourself elegantly from the world; to give contour and grace to sadness; a solitude in style; a walk that gives cadence to memories; stepping towards the intangible; with the breath in the trembling margins of things; the past reborn in the overflow of fragrances; the smell, through which we conquer time; the contour of the invisible things; the forms of the immaterial; to deepen yourself in the intangible; to touch the world airborne by smell; aerial dialogue and gliding dissolution; to bathe in your own reflecting fragmentation…“

—  Emil M. Cioran Romanian philosopher and essayist 1911 - 1995

The Book of Delusions (1936)

„Your past is a skeleton walking one step behind you, and your future is a a skeleton walking one step in front of you. Maybe you don't wear a watch, but your skeletons do, and they always know what time it is.“

—  Sherman Alexie, book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

Source: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

„To swim in the open sky. To achieve the tenderness of clouds. To suspend these masses in the distance, very far away in the grey mist, make the blue explode. I feel all this coming, dawning in my intentions. What joy and what torment! If the bottom were still, perhaps I would never reach these depths. Did they do better in the past? Did the Dutch achieve the poetry of clouds I seek? That tenderness of the sky which even extends to admiration, to worship: it is no exaggeration.“

—  Eugène Boudin French painter 1824 - 1898

Diary-note of Boudin, 3 December, 1856; as cited in the description of his painting 'Sky, Setting Sun, Bushes in Foreground' http://www.muma-lehavre.fr/en/collections/artworks-in-context/eugene-boudin/boudin-skies, by the Muma-museum, Le Havre
A quote from Boudin's personal diary sheds remarkable light on a small group of his sky studies
1850s - 1870s

„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.