Quotessence
Home / Topics / Our Past Quotes

Our Past Quotes

Browse 590 quotes about Our Past.

Related topics

Our FutureIfsYour FutureWayPeopleLooksKnowsThinkingPast LifeMayMovingBelieveHas BeensTodayMemoriesStoriesWantMeanWorldInspirationalOur LivesSelfMistakeNeedsRememberFutureChoicesForgetMatterMindMomentsDoeMadeReasonDetermineImportantLifeHeartLetting GoPastorPersonsShapesTomorrowUseWellsAcceptingActionDecisionHappenedHappensHelpingKindLife IsMotivationalPast MistakesRealityRegretShouldTryingChildrenDestinyEventsFeelsFirstsForgivingFormHealingLyingParentPast ExperiencesSinSometimesStillsChristChristianCurrentsDifferentDoneDreamFeelingsGivingGreaterGrowsHumansIdeasLongLostMoving ForwardNegativePast Present FuturePast SuccessPossibilityProductsPurposeRight NowSeemsTeacherWholeAmericaAsksmore

Our Past Quotes

“It's not what's happening to you now or what has happened in your past that determines who you become. Rather, it's your decisions about what to focus on, what things mean to you, and what you're going to do about them that will determine your ultimate destiny.”

MeanMotivationalPastHappinessGoalDecisionDestinyFocusHappenedHappeningsUltimateDetermineConcentrationOur PastYour PastYour DestinyFocus On GoalsAwaken The Giant WithinFocus And ConcentrationDestiny And Choice
Book:Awaken The Giant Within
Create image

“There was a time in our past when one could walk down any street and be surrounded by harmonious buildings. Such a street wasn't perfect, it wasn't necessarily even pretty, but it was alive. The old buildings smiled, while our new buildings are faceless. The old buildings sang, while the buildings of our age have no music in them.”

AgePastWalksPerfectAliveStreetsBuildingPhilosophicalOur PastHarmoniousFacelessOld Buildings
Book:The Old Way of Seeing
Create image

“We also recommit to supporting tribal self-determination, security, and prosperity for all Native Americans. While we cannot erase the scourges or broken promises of our past, we will move ahead together in writing a new, brighter chapter in our joint history.”

WritingSelfTogetherPastMovingSecurityBrokenPromiseDeterminationProsperityNativeSelf DeterminationChaptersNative AmericanOur PastJointsBrighterEraseAmerican IndianBroken PromisesScourgeMoving Ahead
Author:Barack Obama
Create image

“My son tells me, 'Do you realize you are the last one? The last person who was an eyewitness to the golden age?' Young people, even in Hollywood, ask me, 'Were you really married to Humphrey Bogart?' 'Well, yes, I think I was,' I reply. You realize yourself when you start reflecting - because I don't live in the past, although your past is so much a part of what you are - that you can't ignore it. But I don't look at scrapbooks. I could show you some, but I'd have to climb ladders, and I can't climb”

PeopleThinkingWellsLooksPersonsI CanShowsAgeLastsPastYoungAsksRealizingSonMarriedHollywoodGoldenAsk MeMemorableClimbsMy SonOur PastLaddersYour PastReflectingGolden AgeBogartEyewitnesses
Author:Lauren Bacall
Create image

“I have a way to photograph. You work with space, you have a camera, you have a frame, and then a fraction of a second. It's very instinctive. What you do is a fraction of a second, it's there and it's not there. But in this fraction of a second comes your past, comes your future, comes your relation with people, comes your ideology, comes your hate, comes your love - all together in this fraction of a second, it materializes there.”

PeopleWayTogetherPastHateSpacePhotographyRelationCamerasPhotographerPhotographIdeologyOur FutureOur PastYour FutureYour PastFractions
Author:Sebastiao Salgado
Create image

“Has it occurred to you that transmigration is at once an explanation and a justification of the evil of the world? If the evils we suffer are the result of sins committed in our past lives, we can bear them with resignation and hope that if in this one we strive toward virtue out future lives will be less afflicted.”

IfsWorldPastSufferingEvilSinResultsVirtueBearsStriveCommittedExplanationJustificationReincarnationOur PastResignationPast LifeFuture Life
Author:W. Somerset Maugham
Create image

“Too often the result of affirmative action has been an artificial diversity that gives the appearance of parity between blacks and whites that has not yet been achieved in reality...Preferences tend to attack one form of discrimination with another...Affirmative action encourages a victim-focused identity, and sends the message that there is more power in our past suffering than in our present achievements.”

GivingHas BeensRealityActionPastFormSufferingResultsIdentityAchievementDiversityMessagesVictimAppearanceFocusedDiscriminationArtificialOur PastPreferenceAffirmative ActionAffirmativeParity
Author:Shelby Steele
Create image

“Always take responsibility for your past. It is your only collateral in life. Unless you despise yourself now, you cannot despise yourself then. Everything you did is a part of the process that brought you here. All your past is as alive and real as your so-called 'present.'”

RealPastProcessResponsibilityAliveDespiseOur PastTaking ResponsibilityYour PastCollateral
Book:Tempus with His Right-Side Companion Niko
Create image

“Healing requires far more of us than just the participation of our intellectual and even our emotional resources. And it certainly demands that we do more than look backwards at the dead-end archives of our past. Healing is, by definition, taking a process of disintegration of life and transforming into a process of return to life.”

LifeLooksEndsPastProcessHealingEmotionalReturnHealthyDemandIntellectualResourcesDefinitionsOur PastParticipationBackwardsTransformingDead EndsArchivesDisintegration
Book:Defy Gravity: Healing Beyond the Bounds of Reason
Create image

“Pain is a spiritual wake-up call showing you that there are oceans you have not yet explored. Step beyond the world you know. Reach for heights that you never thought possible. Go to places you have deemed off limits. This is the time to take off the shell of your past and step into the rich possibilities of your future. God does not give us dreams that we cannot fulfill. If you want to do something great with your life-whether it's to fall madly in love, become a teacher, be a great parent-if you aspire to do something beyond what you are doing now, this is the time to begin. Trust yourself.”

IfsKnowsWorldWantGivingDoeDreamPainPastSpiritualFallParentLove IsStepsRichTeacherPossibilityLimitsOceanWake UpHeightOur FutureShellsAspireOur PastYour FutureYour PastTrust YourselfWake Up CallMadly In LoveGreat Parents
Author:Debbie Ford
Create image

“To Toronto City Council: The Sam The Record Man store and sign were important fixtures in Toronto's musical landscape as well as its Civic history. Sadly, all that remains now are our memories of the store and this magnificant neon sign. Ryerson and they City of Toronto should absolutely preserve what myself and many of its citizens consider to be an important symbol of our past and of that store's contributions to our culture.”

MenShouldWellsImportantPastCultureMemoriesCitiesRecordsCitizensRemainsMusicalStoresSymbolsLandscapePreservesContributionOur PastCouncilOur MemoriesCivicsTorontoNeonAll That RemainsFixtureCity CouncilNeon Sign
Author:Geddy Lee
Create image

“The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past. It reminds us of all that once was good, and what could be again.”

YearsHas BeensMotivationalAmericaPastGamesFieldsBaseballArmyConstantOur PastGreat BaseballBaseball LifeBaseball And LifeBest BaseballGreatest BaseballBlackboardBaseball FieldGood BaseballField Of Dreams
Author:James Earl Jones
Create image

“Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. We see our past achievements as the end results of a clean forward thrust, and our present difficulties as signs of decline and decay.”

EndsPainPastSpeakForgetResultsCourageDoubtAchievementDifficultyCleanTrackPainfulDeclineDecayOur PastThrustDiscouragementEnd ResultsForget The Past
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
Create image

“You exist in time: future, present, and past. This is manifest in life, liberty, and the product of your life and liberty. The exercise of choices over life and liberty is your prosperity. To lose your life is to lose your future. To lose your liberty is to lose your present. And to lose the product of your life and liberty is to lose the portion of your past that produced it.”

LifePastLife IsChoicesLosesLibertyProductsExerciseFutureProsperityManifestOur FuturePortionsOur PastYour FutureYour Past
Author:Ken Schoolland
Create image

“The glory of this land has been its capacity for transcending the moral evils of our past. For example, the long struggle of minority citizens for equal rights, once a source of disunity and civil war, is now a point of pride for all Americans. We must never go back. There is no room for racism, anti-Semitism, or other forms of ethnic and racial hatred in this country.”

LongHas BeensWarCountryPastFormEvilRoomsMoralStruggleRightsLandExampleSourcePrideCitizensEqualRacismGloryCapacityHatredPresidentialCivil WarMinoritiesOur PastEqual RightsAnti SemitismTranscendingDisunityMoral Evil
Author:Ronald Reagan
Create image

“We should face reality and our past mistakes in an honest, adult way. Boasting of glory does not make glory, and singing in the dark does not dispel fear. King Hussein Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error. - Thomas Jefferson We have made mistakes. In our haste to do all things for all people, we did not foresee the full consequences of our actions. And when the people raised their voices, we didn't hear. But our deafness was only a temporary condition, and not an irreversible condition.”

PeopleWayShouldDoeMadeReasonRealityActionPastFacesVoiceDarkMistakeConditionsHonestKingsSingingGloryAdultsConsequenceAll ThingsErrorsRaisedAgentsTemporaryOur PastInquiryBoastHusseinOur ActionsHasteMade A MistakeDeafnessIrreversibleWe All Make MistakesI Have Made MistakesPast MistakesConsequences Of Our Actions
Author:Barbara Jordan
Create image

“The Toltec tradition tells us that we surrender a portion of our life force when we dwell on any unhealed wounding event from our past. The unprocessed emotions surrounding these events burden us and weigh heavily on our hearts. They must be dealt with if we want access to all of our vitality. Ultimately, what we will find is that forgiveness is the key to reclaiming all the life force locked in past hurt.”

IfsWantHeartPastForceHurtEmotionOur LivesEventsKeysTraditionBurdenAccessSurrenderPortionsLockedOur PastVitality
Author:Debbie Ford
Create image

“It takes a huge effort to free yourself from memory, but when you succeed, you start to realize that you’re capable of far more than you imagined. You live in this vast body called the Universe, which contains all the solutions and all the problems. Visit your soul; don’t visit your past. The Universe goes through many mutations and carries the past with it. We call each of those mutations a ‘life,’ but just as the cells in your body change and yet you remain the same, so time does not pass, it merely changes.”

DoeSoulProblemBodyPastUniverseRealizingMemoriesEffortHugeSucceedCapableSolutionsYour BodyCellsYour SoulCarrieOur PastYour PastMutationFree YourselfBody Change
Author:Paulo Coelho
Create image