Quotes and Sayings about Past

The future is easy because it doesn't exist; but the past is painful because it lives forever.

Maybe the past is like an anchor holding us back. Maybe you have to let go of who you were, to become who you will be.

Oh yes. The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it.

Timon: "You gotta put your past behind ya. Look kid, bad things happen, and you can't do anything about it, right?"
Simba: "Right."
Timon: "Wrong!"

The past is the past, but if you're overanalyzing or trying to repeat it, you're gonna get stuck.

The past never stops, it reviews the present.

The past is always with us, Tyler. Now, you can try and run away but it's always there.

The past is a wave. Keeps returning.

You can't undo the past... but you can certainly not repeat it.

History's a rock. Can't swim if you're holding it.

I have great expectations for the future, because the past was highly overrated.

The past is a source of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future.

The only time you should look back in life is to see how far you have come.

There's no need to change the past. Because of the past we are who we are now.

What if everything that came from the past were influenced by the future?

To live in the past is to die in the present.

The past is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future.

No matter how fast you are, no one outruns their past.

I am not interested in the past, except as the road to the future.

You don't know where you're going, unless you know where you come from.

I really don't spend time thinking about the past. I think about the future. I'm not stopping.

The past is a great place and I don't want to erase it or to regret it, but I don't want to be its prisoner either.

I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.

Young people compel one to look forward on a life full of effort. Old people permit one to look backward on a life whose effort is over and done with.

I realized I've spent all my life creating a past.

You can't live in the past, there's nothing you can do about it.

You can't let your past hold your future hostage.

Don't live in the past. There's no point. You can't change anything. What a waste of time.

I look back with a mix of emotions: sadness for the people who are gone, nostalgia for times that have passed, but immense gratitude for the wonderful opportunities that came my way.

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

Whenever I think of the past, it brings back so many memories.

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

A person who doesn't learn from the past is an idiot, in my estimation.

Living in the moment, thinking about the future, and staying connected to the past: That's what makes me feel whole.

The past is just a story we tell ourselves.

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

The good times of today are the sad thoughts of tomorrow.

I never look back, darling. It distracts from the now.

Isn't it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different...

You need to stop focusing on the darkness behind you. The past is the past, nothing can change what we've done.

Because this is what happens when you try to run from the past. It just doesn’t catch up, it overtakes... blotting out the future.

I can't go back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Kids, you can't cling to the past. Because no matter how tight you hold on... it's already gone.

You can't run from your past. You will end up running in circles. Until you fall back down into the same hole you were trying to escape from, only the hole's grown deeper.

There are no choices. Nothing but a straight line.
The Illusion comes afterwards, when you ask 'Why me?' and 'What if?'
When you look back, see the branches, like a pruned bonsai tree, or a forked lightening.
If you had done something differently, it wouldn't be you.
It would be someone else looking back, asking a different set of questions.

Simba: "Ouh. Jeez, what was that for?"
Rafiki: "It doesn't matter, it's in the past."
Simba: "Yeah, but it still hurts."
Rafiki: "Oh yes, the past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it."

Too many people live too much in the past. The past must be a springboard, not a sofa.

The future is coming so fast, we can't possibly predict it; we can only learn to respond quickly.

You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us? You think we don’t recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble? Your father is alive in you, Harry, and shows himself plainly when you have need of him.

Saphira: "Live in the present, remember the past, and fear not the future, for it doesn't exist and never shall. There is only now."

I'm strong, because I've been weak.
I'm fearless, because I've been afraid.
I am wise, because I've been foolish.

Tradition does not mean that the living are dead, it means that the dead are living.