“When you are in the future, the past looks different.”

— Richard Mottram

April 2004, to the Commons committee on public administration, Hoggart, Simon. 'Sir Humphrey reveals his Dusty Springfield side' http://politics.guardian.co.uk/redbox/comment/0,9408,1206669,00.html, The Guardian (30 April 2004).

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Richard Mottram 4

British civil ervant 1946

Peter Benchley book Jaws

Source: Jaws

“It strikes me that this may be one of the differences between youth and age: when we are young, we invent different futures for ourselves; when we are old, we invent different pasts for others.”

Julian Barnes book The Sense of an Ending

Source: The Sense of an Ending

“During this campaign, we’ve heard about the two profoundly different futures that could await women. And how one of those futures looks like an offensive, obsolete relic of our past.”

Sandra Fluke (1981) American women's rights activist and lawyer

2012 Democratic National Convention

“A world of "if"s, but it would make no difference. If I could go back in time… but I couldn't. The past was behind me. The best thing now would be to stop looking over my shoulder. It was time to forget the past and look to the present and future.”

Darren Shan book Cirque du Freak

Source: A Living Nightmare

“You're always free to change your mind
and choose a different future, or a different past.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

“You can't look back - you just have to put the past behind you, and find something better in your future.”

Jodi Picoult Salem Falls

Variant: A very wise man once told me that you can't look back-you just have to put the past behind you, and find something better in your future.
Source: Salem Falls