“There is a secret agreement between past generations and the present one.”

— Walter Benjamin, book Theses on the Philosophy of History

Source: Theses on the Philosophy of History (1940), II
Context: There is a secret agreement between past generations and the present one. Our coming was expected on earth. Like every generation that preceded us, we have been endowed with a weak Messianic power, a power to which the past has a claim. That claim cannot be settled cheaply.

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Walter Benjamin70

German literary critic, philosopher and social critic (1892… 1892–1940

Harold Powers (1928–2007) American academic

Harold Powers, "Reading Mozart's Music", p.43.

“History always constitutes the relation between a present and its past. Consequently fear of the present leads to mystification of the past”

John Berger book Ways of Seeing

Source: Ways of Seeing

“You will only look for past events when the present is unsatisfactory. The secret to enjoying the present moment is to make it more satisfying than the past. Go beyond the limits.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“The present moment
contains past and future.
The secret of transformation,
is in the way we handle this very moment.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Understanding Our Mind (2006) Parallax Press ISBN 978-81-7223-796-7

“The real is the present, conceived not as a mathematical point between the present and the past, but as the union of present and past in a duration or permanence that is at the same time change. Thus the past as past and the future as future do not exist at all, but are purely ideal; the past as living in the present and the future as germinating in the present are wholly real and indeed are just the present itself. It is because of the presence of these two elements in the present… that the present is a concrete and changing reality and not an empty mathematical point.”

R. G. Collingwood (1889–1943) British historian and philosopher

Source: "Some Perplexities about time: with an attempted solution" (1925), p. 149. as cited in: Jonathan Gorman, "The transmission of our understanding of historical time." Historia Social y de la Educación 1.2 (2012): 129-152.