“The past is the one thing we are not prisoners of. We can do with the past exactly what we wish. What we can't do is to change its consequences.”

—  John Berger

Last update Nov. 6, 2024. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The past is the one thing we are not prisoners of. We can do with the past exactly what we wish. What we can't do is to…" by John Berger?
John Berger photo
John Berger28
British painter, writer and art critic 1926–2017

Related quotes

Anthony Robbins photo

“We can change our lives. We can do, have, and be exactly what we wish.”

Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker

Mariano Rajoy photo

“We do what we can do means what exactly means, that we do what we can do.”

Mariano Rajoy (1955) Spanish politician

26 June, 2017 <br class="br">As President, 2017 <br class="br">Source: Vozópuli http://www.vozpopuli.com/espana/Rajoy-Conteste-senor-Barcenas-telefono_2_1048115186.html

Sherrilyn Kenyon photo

“We can't change what we've done, but we can always change what we're going to do.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Time Untime

“As we are human, we can't do what we can't do; as we're neurotic, we can't do what we can.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Neurotics and neurosis

Paulo Coelho photo

“We learn in the past, but we are not the result of that. We suffered in the past, loved in the past, cried and laughed in the past, but that’s of no use to the present. The present has its challenges, its good and bad side. We can neither blame nor be grateful to the past for what is happening now. Each new experience of love has nothing whatsoever to do with past experiences. It’s always new.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

“Always choose the future over the past. What do we do now?”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Source: Create Your Own Future: How to Master the 12 Critical Factors of Unlimited Success

Marcel Proust photo

“We do not succeed in changing things according to our desire, but gradually our desire changes. The situation that we hoped to change because it was intolerable becomes unimportant. We have not managed to surmount the obstacle, as we were absolutely determined to do, but life has taken us round it, led us past it, and then if we turn round to gaze at the remote past, we can barely catch sight of it, so imperceptible has it become.”

Marcel Proust book In Search of Lost Time

Nous n'arrivons pas à changer les choses selon notre désir, mais peu à peu notre désir change. La situation que nous espérions changer parce qu'elle nous était insupportable, nous devient indifférente. Nous n'avons pas pu surmonter l'obstacle, comme nous le voulions absolument, mais la vie nous l'a fait tourner, dépasser, et c'est à peine alors si en nous retournant vers le lointain du passé nous pouvons l'apercevoir, tant il est devenu imperceptible.
Source: In Search of Lost Time, Remembrance of Things Past (1913-1927), Vol. VI: The Sweet Cheat Gone (1925), Ch. I: "Grief and Oblivion"

“We are all affected by our pasts, but it is within our power not to let what we have done to dictate what we will do.”

Kristin Cast book Tempted

Source: Tempted

Related topics