Quotes about the past

A collection of quotes on the topic of past.

„Be there, for once and all,
Severed great minds from small,
Announced to each his station in the Past!“

— Robert Browning, Rabbi ben Ezra
Dramatis Personae (1864), Rabbi Ben Ezra, Context: Be there, for once and all, Severed great minds from small, Announced to each his station in the Past! Was I, the world arraigned, Were they, my soul disdained, Right? Let age speak the truth and give us peace at last! Now, who shall arbitrate? Ten men love what I hate, Shun what I follow, slight what I receive; Ten, who in ears and eyes Match me: we all surmise, They this thing, I that: whom shall my soul believe? Line 121.

„How unsearchable his judgments [are] and past tracing out his ways [are]! For “who has come to know Jehovah’s mind, or who has become his counselor?“

— Paul of Tarsus, book Epistle to the Romans
Epistle to the Romans, Context: O the depth of God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How unsearchable his judgments [are] and past tracing out his ways [are]! For “who has come to know Jehovah’s mind, or who has become his counselor?” Romans 11:33 http://www.jw.org/en/publications/bible/nwt/books/romans/11/, NWT

Way

„Fundamental to this idea of art (conceptual art) is the understanding of the linguistic nature of all art propositions, be they past or present, and regardless of the elements used in their construction.“

— Joseph Kosuth American conceptual artist 1945
note: Without this understanding a 'conceptual' form of presentation is little more than a manufactured stylehood, and such art we have with increasing abundance. 'Joseph Kosuth: Introductory note by the American editor', in Art-Language Vol.1 Nr.2, Art & Language Press, Chipping Norton (February 1970), p.3.

Idea, Art, Nature, Understanding

„If we dwell on real or imagined sins of the past, we shall never be able to find one another in the present, nor shall we be able to work together on building the future.“

— F. W. de Klerk South African politician 1936
1990s, Speech to the Good-will Foundation (9 March 1991)

Imagination, Future

„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

Cry

„The time is past when music was written for a handful of aesthetes. Today vast crowds of people have come face to face with serious music and are waiting with eager impatience. Composers, take heed of this…But this does not mean that you must pander to this audience. Pandering always has an element of insincerity about it and nothing good ever came of that.“

— Sergei Prokofiev Ukrainian & Russian Soviet pianist and composer 1891 - 1953
Page 106; from a notebook entry (1937).

Waiting, Time, Music, People

„That is probably the hardest thing a person can learn, as I so often find in others (and in myself as well in the past) to forgive one’s own mistakes and lapses.“

— Etty Hillesum Jewish diarist 1914 - 1943

Personality, Learning, Forgiveness

„I put a lot of mannequins in my room in the past, and I still have mannequins in my room, because I used to be very lonely, painfully lonely. You have no idea. I used to walk the streets looking for people to talk to. I'm talking about the height of one's career…. I would walk up to them, strangers, and say, "will you be my friend?" They'd go, "my god, Michael Jackson!"“

— Michael Jackson American singer, songwriter and dancer 1958 - 2009
and that's not what I wanted. The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant to See (2002)

Idea, People, God

„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)

Change, Future

„A fine thing: suddenly to forget about one’s history, one’s past, to stop feeling that one’s present happiness is endangered by what one used to be.“

— Peter Handke Austrian writer, playwright and film director 1942
Das Gewicht der Welt [The Weight of the World], p. 7

Happiness, Forgetting, History, Feeling

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„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)

Change, Future

„A shot in the dark
A past lost in space
Where do I start?
The past and the chase
You hunted me down
Like a wolf, a predator
I felt like a deer in the lights“

— Sia (musician) Australian singer 1975
Songs, She Wolf (Falling to Pieces), Nothing But the Beat 2.0 (2012). Cowritten with David Guetta, Chris Braide and Giorgio Tuinfort.

Wolf, Light

„Truth is not of the past or the present, it is timeless; the man who quotes the truth of the Buddha, of Shankara, of Christ, or who merely repeats what I am saying, will not find truth, because repetition is not truth. Repetition is a lie.“

— Jiddu Krishnamurti Indian spiritual philosopher 1895 - 1986
Posthumous publications, The Collected Works, Context: Truth is not something in the distance; there is no path to it, there is neither your path nor my path; there is no devotional path, there is no path of knowledge or path of action, because truth has no path to it. The moment you have a path to truth, you divide it, because the path is exclusive; and what is exclusive at the very beginning will end in exclusiveness. The man who is following a path can never know truth because he is living in exclusiveness; his means are exclusive, and the means are the end, are not separate from the end. If the means are exclusive, the end is also exclusive. So there is no path to truth, and there are not two truths. Truth is not of the past or the present, it is timeless; the man who quotes the truth of the Buddha, of Shankara, of Christ, or who merely repeats what I am saying, will not find truth, because repetition is not truth. Repetition is a lie. "Fifth Talk in Bombay 1950 (12 March 1950) http://www.jkrishnamurti.com/krishnamurti-teachings/view-text.php?tid=352&chid=4672&w=%22Truth+is+not+something+in+the+distance%22, J.Krishnamurti Online, JKO Serial No. 500312, The Collected Works, Vol. VI, p. 134

Christ, Quotes, Lie, Truth

„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.

„When one cannot depart from the present or the past, the future shall be beyond their reach; they meander a path inattentive and without destination.

2019“

— RJ Intindola (Gandolfo)

Future

„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

Perfection, Personality, Future, God

„Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Etiam egestas wisi a erat. Morbi imperdiet, mauris ac auctor dictum.“

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