Quotessence
Home / Topics / Past Quotes

Past Quotes

Browse 13378 quotes about Past.

Related topics

IfsPeopleThinkingYearsWayKnowsWorldMenHas BeensOur PastMomentsLooksWantMemoriesTodayYour PastMindTryingFeelsDoneMayNeedsLongShouldGivingMovingMy PastRememberStillsMadeBelieveMeanOver The PastWellsPersonsWritingDoeKindHumansFirstsDifferentLittlesAgeTwoHappenedI CanForgetSeemsCountryImportantLastsRealSaidFutureSometimesBookArtDreamMatterStoriesHistoryChildrenHeartLifeInspirationalEndsGonePast LifeRealityOur FutureEventsIdeasFactsMistakeHappensAbleReasonMightUseRegretWholeTimeProblemLyingStatesFeelingsUsedLife IsSelfActionHelpingCenturyEnoughHardWould BeAmericaFormBehindsFacesSoulmore

Past Quotes

“Neil Young is my hero, and such a great example. You know what that guy has been doing for the past 40 years? Making music. That's what that guy does. Sometimes you pay attention, sometimes you don't. Sometimes he hands it to you, sometimes he keeps it to himself. He's a good man with a beautiful family and wonderful life.”

KnowsMenYearsDoeHas BeensSometimesHandsPastBeautifulYoungGuyPayAttentionWonderfulExampleHeroPay AttentionGood ManThat GuyMy HeroWonderful LifeBeautiful Family
Author:Dave Grohl
Create image

“Regular crises perpetuate the past by reinvigorating cycles which started long ago. In contrast, (capital-C) Crises are the past's death knell. They function like laboratories in which the future is incubated. They have given us agriculture and the industrial revolution, technology and the labour contract, killer germs and antibiotics. Once they strike, the past ceases to be a reliable predictor of the future and a brave new world is born.”

WorldLongPastGivenBornTechnologyRevolutionFunctionCrisisBraveStrikesCeaseLabourCyclesContractsNew WorldContrastKillersLong AgoAgricultureLaboratoryGermsIndustrial RevolutionBrave New WorldAntibiotics
Book:The Global Minotaur: America, Europe and the Future of the Global Economy
Create image

“Had history been democratic in its ways, there would have been no farming and no indsturial revolution. Both leaps into the future were occasioned by unbearably painful crises that made most people wish they could recoil into the past.”

PeopleWayHas BeensMadePastWishRevolutionCrisisDemocraticPainfulLeapFarmingIndustrial RevolutionRecoil
Book:The Global Minotaur: America, Europe and the Future of the Global Economy
Create image

“The Novelist As Teacher”: “I would be quite satisfied if my novels (especially the ones I set in the past) did no more than teach my readers that their past – with all its imperfections – was not one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans acting on God’s behalf delivered them.”

IfsFirstsLongWould BePastNightActingTeachNovelTeacherReaderSatisfiedNovelistsImperfectionBehalfSavageryLong Nights
Book:Things Fall Apart: Authoritative Text, Contexts and Criticism
Create image

“The embrace of present and past time, in which English antiquarianism becomes a form of alchemy, engenders a strange timelessness. It is as if the little bird which flew through the Anglo-Saxon banqueting hall, in Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, gained the outer air and became the lark ascending in Vaughan Williams's orchestral setting. The unbroken chain is that of English music itself.”

IfsLittlesPastFormAirStrangeBirdEmbraceSettingSettingsChainsHallsFlewAlchemyUnbrokenTimelessnessLarksAscendingAnglo SaxonEnglish Music
Author:Peter Ackroyd
Create image

“That historian or scholar who delights in pointing out the weaknesses and frailties of present or past leaders destroys faith. A destroyer of faith — particularly one within the Church, and more particularly one who is employed specifically to build faith — places himself in great spiritual jeopardy. He is serving the wrong master, and unless he repents, he will not be among the faithful in the eternities. Do not spread disease germs!”

PastSpiritualChurchLeaderMastersDiseaseWeaknessEternityDelightSpreadFaithfulServingHistorianScholarEmployedRepentPointingGermsFrailtyDestroyersJeopardyGreat Spiritual
Author:Boyd K. Packer
Create image

“Do you know, we're right underneath Springtime Parish? This place is the opposite of springtime. Everything past prime, boarded up for the season. Just above us, the light shines golden on daffodils full of rainwine and heartgrass and a terrible, wicked, sad girl I can't get back to. I don't even know if I want to. Do I want to be her again? Or do I want to be free? I come here to think about that. To be near her and consider it. I think I shall never be free. I think I traded my freedom for a better story. It was a better story, even if the ending needed work.”

IfsThinkingKnowsWantI CanStoriesLightPastGirlNeededTerribleOppositesSeasonsShiningGoldenWickedGet BackPrimeDo You KnowSpringtimeParishDaffodil
Author:Catherynne M. Valente
Create image

“Neocons do not feel that kind of alarm or anxiety about the growth of the state in the past century, seeing it as natural, indeed inevitable ... People have always preferred strong government to weak government, although they certainly have no liking for anything that smacks of overly intrusive government.”

PeopleFeelsKindStatesGovernmentPastStrongGrowthNaturalSeeingCenturyAnxietyWeakInevitableAlarmsSmackStrong GovernmentWeak Government
Author:Irving Kristol
Create image

“It’s unlikely to change – there’s nothing in King Salman’s past as governor of Riyadh for about forty years that suggests that he was particularly a reformer, not on the role of women, not on democratic development. There’s been a rumor in the last couple of days that he said to someone in an e-mail that he’s in favor of a constitutional monarchy, but I would be surprised if the level of repression started to go down … I think the kind of thing that we would view as significant reforms is unlikely.”

IfsThinkingYearsKindSaidWould BeLastsPastLevelsViewsRolesDevelopmentCoupleKingsDemocraticFavorsSignificantReformFortyMailGovernorsUnlikelyRumorMonarchyRepressionReformersConstitutional MonarchyRiyadh
Author:Elliott Abrams
Create image

“The Saudis and Emiratis blame all of this on Iran. I think they’d have to grant, that as has been said, that the Houthis are an internally generated movement in Yemen and the Saudis were supposed to be dealing with the Houthis, who started out in essence along their border. So one of the things that we’re seeing is a complete failure of Saudi policy toward Yemen over the past 10 years, but the Saudis totally believe that the reason the Houthis are able to succeed militarily is the amount of money, advice, and guns they are receiving from Iran.”

ThinkingYearsBelieveHas BeensSaidReasonAblePastSeeingAdvicePolicyMovementAmountSucceedGunEssenceBlameSupposed To BeBordersIranGrantsReceivingOver The PastSaudisYemen
Author:Elliott Abrams
Create image

“As the strata of the earth preserve in succession the living creatures of past epochs, so the shelves of libraries preserve in succession the errors of the past and their expositions, which like the former were very lively and made a great commotion in their own age but now stand petrified and stiff in a place where only the literary palaeontologist regards them.”

MadeAgeEarthPastCreaturesRegardErrorsLibraryFormerPreservesShelvesSuccessionLivelyLiving Creatures
Book:On the Suffering of the World
Create image

“When I train, I love to take time off and fly to the Natural History Museum or an exhibition. I just love that. When you know your past, it will help you with your future… That’s why most of my friends are not fighters. Most of my friends are nerds like me. That’s why I have a hard time finding a girlfriend. I need someone to talk science with. I’m married to my work right now. But you never know. One day I could wake up and just do something different. Life is so unpredictable.”

KnowsNeedsDifferentHardHelpingPastLife IsNaturalRight NowOne DayFindingsMarriedMy FriendsWake UpTrainLike MeFighterGirlfriendHard TimesMuseumsOur FutureTake TimeOur PastUnpredictableNerdYour FutureYour PastExhibitionsTime OffNatural HistoryDifferent Life
Author:Georges St-Pierre
Create image

“Remember, how often the great art of the past didn't look great at first, how often it didn't look like art at all; how much easier it is, decades or centuries later, to adore it, not only because it is, in fact, great but because it's still here; because the inevitable little errors and infelicities tend to recede in an object that's survived the War of 1812, the eruption of Krakatoa, the rise and fall of Nazism.”

FirstsLooksLittlesArtStillsWarFactsPastRememberFallCenturyObjectsEasierErrorsDecadesInevitableSurvivedAdoreGreat ArtNazismRise And FallEruptionWar Of 1812
Author:Michael Cunningham
Create image

“To avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, an alert citizenry today should take the trouble to learn how easy it can be for a powerful minority to manipulate information to win the support-or the indifference-of the majority towards an action.”

ShouldTodayActionPastWinningEasyPowerfulMistakeSupportTroubleInformationMajorityIndifferenceMinoritiesManipulateCitizenry
Book:Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion
Create image

“In retrospect, the past seems not one existence with a continuous flow of years and events that follow each other in logical sequence, but a life periodically dividing into entirely separate compartments. Change of surroundings, interests, pursuits, has made it seem actually more like different incarnations.”

YearsMadeDifferentSeemsPastInterestExistenceEventsReflectionFlowPursuitMade ItLogicalSurroundingsSequenceIncarnationRetrospectDividing
Book:The Fabric of Memory
Create image

“Why do so many young people literally die to belong to fraternities, sororities, and other college social organizations? The answer is complicated, but here is a starting point: Ever since the medieval universities were founded, young people have done whatever it takes to gain acceptance, to break with their past lives, to achieve a sense of power, to carve out a society of their own that isn't quite what their tutors and teachers had in mind. In the United States, hazing and drinking have been endemic since colonial days.”

PeopleMindHas BeensStatesDonePastYoungDiesSocialAnswersUnitedBreakUnited StatesTeacherAchieveAcceptanceCollegeGainsOrganizationDrinkingUniversityStartingComplicatedBelongingMedievalStarting PointPast LifeWhatever It TakesFraternityTutorSocial OrganizationSororityHazing
Book:Wrongs of Passage: Fraternities, Sororities, Hazing, and Binge Drinking
Create image