Past Quotes

God cannot alter the past, though historians can.

~ Samuel Butler

For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.

~ Winston Churchill

The common people have no history: persecuted by the present, they cannot think of preserving the memory of the past.

~ Jean-Henri Fabre

History is the interpretation of the significance that the past has for us.

~ Johan Huizinga

History is always changing behind us, and the past changes a little every time we retell it.

~ Hilary Mantel

Thus the regime has deprived Iranian women not just of their present rights, but also of their history and their past.

~ Azar Nafisi

After voluntary exertions on the part of our people to which the history of the world furnishes no parallel, is the old root of bitterness still to remain in the ground, to sprout and bear fruit in the future as it has borne fruit in the past?

~ Robert Dale Owen

The past is malleable and flexible, changing as our recollection interprets and re-explains what has happened.

~ Peter L. Berger

It states, History should be regarded as a means for understanding the past and solving the challenges of the future. It also suggests that this celebration of the end of slavery is an important and enriching part of the history and heritage of the United States.

~ Mark Foley

Like most of those who study history, he (Napoleon III) learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones.

~ A. J. P. Taylor

India is a curious place that still preserves the past, religions, and its history. No matter how modern India becomes, it is still very much an old country.

~ Anita Desai

Anniversaries are like birthdays: occasions to celebrate and to think ahead, usually among friends with whom one shares not only the past but also the future.

~ Zbigniew Brzeziński

I was getting a little bored with my hair. It's kind of a symbolic thing, just getting rid of the past, moving forward. It's amazing what a reaction you get when you cut your hair.

~ Pamela Anderson

Call me an optimist, but in the past 300 years we have built amazing technologies which - by and large - have advanced humanity.

~ Sebastian Thrun

While politicians may be forgiven for failing to predict the future - who can, alas? - it is amazing that they defiantly ignore the past.

~ Michael Korda

In the past few years, we've been doing amazing stuff with desserts. Pastry chefs have been using herbs and spices in their desserts. So vanilla cake doesn't have to be just vanilla, it can have a little thyme. Or you could have a custard with a little lavender in it, which is just amazing.

~ Ron Ben-Israel

Isn't it amazing the way the future succeeds in creating an appropriate past?

~ John Leonard

In the past a leader was a boss. Today's leaders must be partners with their people... they no longer can lead solely based on positional power.

~ Ken Blanchard

Whatever has happened to you in your past has no power over this present moment, because life is now.

~ Oprah Winfrey

We are not animals. We are not a product of what has happened to us in our past. We have the power of choice.

~ Stephen Covey

In my opinion, most of the great men of the past were only there for the beer - the wealth, prestige and grandeur that went with the power.

~ A. J. P. Taylor

The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ came to do three things. He came to have my past forgiven, you get a purpose for living and a home in Heaven.

~ Rick Warren

People respond when you tell them there is a great future in front of you, you can leave your past behind.

~ Joel Osteen

In the past, I've visited remote places - North Korea, Ethiopia, Easter Island - partly as a way to visit remote states of mind: remote parts of myself that I wouldn't ordinarily explore.

~ Pico Iyer

I do not believe anything comes by chance. I regard the present as the necessary child of a necessary past.

~ Robert Green Ingersoll

I've been allowed to grow over the past twenty years. I've managed to avoid being trapped in one moment of my career and for that, I'm very thankful.

~ Giovanni Ribisi

We cannot embrace God's forgiveness if we are so busy clinging to past wounds and nursing old grudges.

~ T. D. Jakes

A 'real pastor' is not preaching of their own; they are speaking what God put in their heart by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is using them at that very moment to speak to the congregations situations -past, present, and future.

~ Monica Johnson

A healthy vision of the future is not possible without an accurate knowledge of the past.

~ Daisaku Ikeda

Over the past years, I have lectured many times on the Cuban missile crisis, most provocatively to 200 senior officers of the former Soviet army in Moscow in 1991, among them KGB generals. There, my knowledge of Penkovsky's role was thoroughly confirmed, and so was the Soviet military men's residual sense of humiliation at Khrushchev's 'blink'.

~ Alistair Horne

Life is a culmination of the past, an awareness of the present, an indication of a future beyond knowledge, the quality that gives a touch of divinity to matter.

~ Charles Lindbergh

Knowledge comes from the past, so it's safe. It is also out of date. It's the opposite of originality... Experience is the opposite of being creative.

~ Paul Arden

If the past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and the surest emancipation.

~ John Acton

These past years, as we have been recovering and given our city a rebirth, we have been encouraged by our faith, knowledge, and steadfast belief that we will pull through. There will be challenges and setbacks, as there have already been, but we will continue, and we the citizens of New Orleans will prevail in bringing our city back.

~ Cedric Richmond

When I wrote 'The Alexandria Link,' I discovered that we are only aware of about 10 percent of the knowledge of the ancient world. In the ancient world, most of the knowledge was destroyed. Every emperor of China who came in wiped out everything that came before them, to the point that the country completely forgot its past.

~ Steve Berry

Vinyl is the real deal. I've always felt like, until you buy the vinyl record, you don't really own the album. And it's not just me or a little pet thing or some kind of retro romantic thing from the past. It is still alive.

~ Jack White

I was a dog in a past life. Really. I'll be walking down the street and dogs will do a sort of double take. Like, Hey, I know him.

~ William H. Macy

We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.

~ George Washington

Take time to gather up the past so that you will be able to draw from your experience and invest them in the future.

~ Jim Rohn

I think experience will teach you a combination of liberalism and conservatism. We have to be progressive and at the same time we have to retain values. We have to hold onto the past as we explore the future.

~ Oliver Stone