“The present no matter what I brought couldn’t change the past. The Past was set and sealed.”

“It’s what you do in the present that will redeem the past and thereby change the future.”

“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.”

“Third, consider the insistency of an idea. The insistency of a past idea with reference to the present is a quantity which is less, the further back that past idea is, and rises to infinity as the past idea is brought up into coincidence with the present.”

“I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.”

“There have been times, lately, when I dearly wished that I could change the past. Well, I can’t, but I can change the present, so that when it becomes the past it will turn out to be a past worth having.”

“The present changes the past. Looking back you do not find what you left behind.”

“But Greece and her foundations are
Built below the tide of war,
Based on the crystalline sea
Of thought and its eternity;
Her citizens, imperial spirits,
Rule the present from the past,
On all this world of men inherits
Their seal is set.”

“Change is not what we expect from religious people. They tend to love the past more than the present or the future.”

“Best not to mix the past with the present. The present paints the past with gold. The past paints the present with lead.”