You are young ... the past is nothing to you, not even another country as it is to the old, or a nightmare as it is to the guilty.
CASSANDRA CLARE, City of Bones
History-writing is a way of getting rid of the past.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE, The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
It is yesterday that makes tomorrow so sad.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY, Keystones of Thought
Who recollects distinctly his past adventures, knows his destiny to come.
JOHANN CASPAR LAVATER, Aphorisms on Man
The past is a towering mansion.
It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory.
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, "Show Mr. and Mrs. F. to Number--"
- Over the trackless past, somewhere,
- Lie the lost days of our tropic youth,
- Only regained by faith and prayer,
- Only recalled by prayer and plaint,
- Each lost day has its patron saint!
BRET HARTE, "The Lost Galleon"
The past is funny ... it never seems to let things lie, finished. It never seems to stay in place as it should.
KEN KESEY, Sometimes a Great Notion
From the experience of the past we derive instructive lessons for the future.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, Inaugural Address, Mar. 4, 1825
Only by acceptance of the past will you alter its meaning.
T. S. ELIOT, The Cocktail Party
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