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Past Quotes

“We're well past the end of the century when time, for the first time, curved, bent, slipped, flash forwarded, and flashed back yet still kept rolling along. We know it all now, with our thoughts traveling at the speed of a tweet, our 140 characters in search of a paragraph. We're post-history. We're post-mystery.”

Knows Firsts Wells Stills Ends Character Past Mystery Century First Time Speed Posts Flash Rolling Our Thoughts Bent Tweet Paragraph Know It All 140 Character Rolling Along

Author:Ali Smith

“All of the disparate books on my list contain characters, scenes or voices that linger long past the last page of their stories.”

Long Book Character Stories Lasts Past Voice Scene Pages Lists

Author:Maureen Corrigan

“My first two novels were set in the past, and that freed me up in a lot of ways; it allowed me to find my way into my story and my characters through research.”

Way Firsts Two Character Stories Past Novel Research My Way

Author:Jennifer Gilmore

“At any age it does us no harm to look over our past shortcomings and plan to improve our characters and actions in the coming year.”

Years Looks Doe Character Age Action Past Plans Harm Our Past Shortcomings Miscellaneous

Book:Eleanor Roosevelt's My Day: Her Acclaimed Columns, 1936-1945

Source: Eleanor Roosevelt's My Day: Her Acclaimed Columns, 1936-1945

“Don’t use your conscious past. Use your creative imagination to create a past that belongs to your character. I don’t want you to be stuck with your own life. It’s too little.”

Want Littles Character Use Past Imagination Creative Conscious Theatre Stuck Creative Imagination

Author:Stella Adler

“There is no surer or more illuminating way of reading a man's character, and perhaps a little of his past history, than by observing the contexts in which he prefers to use certain words.”

Men Way Littles Character Use Past Certain Reading Observing Illuminating

Book:History in English Words by Owen Barfield

Source: History in English Words by Owen Barfield

“I don't have a preference for bad people, no. I have an interest in playing a broad range of characters. Obviously, I'm mostly identified with a character who is very responsible, very solid and very intelligent, but there are plenty of questionable characters in my past career. I'm interested in exploring theatricality and characters with some dimension.”

People Character Past Interest Careers Intelligent Responsible Plenty Range Dimensions Broads Exploring Preference Bad People My Past Questionable

Author:Leonard Nimoy

“The judge's authority depends upon the assumption that he speaks with the mouth of others. That is to say, the momentum of his utterances must be greater than any which his personal reputation and character can command, if it is to do the work assigned to it - if it is to stand against the passionate resentments arising out of the interests he must frustrate - for while a judge must discover some composition with the dominant trends of his times, he must preserve his authority by cloaking himself in the majesty of an overshadowing past.”

“There's no doubt that I really have a feeling for the theater. These past few days it has occurred to me to do a comedy whose chief characters are photographic enlargements. Those people we see in doorways. Newlyweds, sergeants, dead girls, an anonymous crowd full of mustaches and wrinkles. It should be terrible. If I focus it well, it will possess pathos without consolation. In the midst of those people I will place an authentic fairy.”

“The riches of the soul are stored up in its memory. this is the test of character, not whether a man follows the daily fashion, but whether the past is alive in his present.”

Men Soul Character Past Memories Alive Fashion Tests Riches Test Of Character

Book:Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion

Source: Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion

“A nature wise With finding in itself the types of all, With watching from the dim verge of the time What things to be are visible in the gleams Thrown forward on them from the luminous past, Wise with the history of its own frail heart, With reverence and sorrow, and with love, Broad as the world, for freedom and for man.”

Men World Heart Character Past Wise Type Sorrow Findings Visible Thrown Broads Reverence Luminous Verge Frail Gleam

Book:Miscellaneous poems. Memorial verses. Sonnets. I-XXVII. L'Envoi. Vision of Sir Launfal

Source: Miscellaneous poems. Memorial verses. Sonnets. I-XXVII. L'Envoi. Vision of Sir Launfal

“The characters are great, and this is the first adventure of the brothers Grimm, so there's plenty of potential to make a franchise. We've been quite successful in the past, so anything like that, if it does pay off with hopefully the good movie that I think it will be, it pays off also down the road.”

Ifs Thinking Firsts Doe Character Past Pay Successful Adventure Brother Plenty Hopefully Down The Road Good Movie Grimm Brothers Grimm

Author:Bob Weinstein

“I watched every single Bond movie three or four times, taking in everything I could about how the character had been portrayed in the past, then threw all that away once I started doing the role.”

Character Past Three Roles Four Bond Movie

Author:Daniel Craig

“How idle a boast, after all, is the immortality of a name! Time is ever silently turning over his pages; we are too much engrossed by the story of the present to think of the character and anecdotes that gave interest to the past; and each age is a volume thrown aside and forgotten.”

Thinking Character Stories Age Past Names Interest Too Much Pages Forgotten Immortality Thrown Volume Idle Boast Anecdotes

Book:The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories

Source: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories

“A successful author is equally in danger of the diminution of his fame, whether he continues or ceases to write. The regard of the public is not to be kept but by tribute, and the remembrance of past service will quickly languish unless successive performances frequently revive it. Yet in every new attempt there is new hazard, and there are few who do not, at some unlucky time, injure their own characters by attempting to enlarge them.”

Writing Character Past Successful Danger Fame Performances Regard Cease Remembrance Attempting Tribute Hazards Revive Unlucky Languish

Book:The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752

Source: The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752

“I always think that I love doing what I'm doing at the moment. The past is over. I can't go play one of those characters again. But I can play this and I can continue to grow in what I'm doing at the moment and that's really what I'm thinking about now.”

Thinking I Can Play Moments Character Past Grows Past Is Over

Author:Gavin MacLeod

“Every unfulfilled aspiration of humanity in the past; all partial representation of perfect character; all sacrifices, nay, even those of idolatry, point to the fulfillment of what want, the answer to every longing--the type of perfect humanity, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Want Character Past Humanity Jesus Christ Answers Perfect Lord Sacrifice Type Jesus Christ Longing Fulfillment Aspiration Representation Idolatry Lord Jesus Christ

Book:Sermons Preached at Trinity Chapel, Brighton

Source: Sermons Preached at Trinity Chapel, Brighton

“Good-humor only teaches charms to last, Still makes new conquests and maintains the past.”

Stills Character Lasts Past Teach Charm Conquest Good Humor

Author:Alexander Pope

“Laura Alicia Deverell was born on May 10th, 1862, at precisely a quarter past one o'clock on a Thursday morning. Those interested in that pseudo-science astrology or astromancy may trace her life and character, if they wish, among the stars, where no doubt it is all written.”

Ifs May Book Character Past Wish Stars Born Morning Doubt Written Clock No Doubt Quarters Astrology Pseudo Thursday Laura

Author:Susan Ertz

“time past is not time gone, it is time accumulated with the host resembling the character in the fairytale who was joined along the route by more and more characters none of whom could be separated from one another or from the host, with some stuck so fast that their presence caused physical pain.”

Character Pain Past Gone Stuck Host Routes Fairytale Physical Pain Times Past

Book:To the is-land: an autobiography

Source: To the is-land: an autobiography

“Emotional healing is almost always a process. It takes time. There is a very important reason for this. Our heavenly Father is not only wanting to free us from the pain of past wounds, he is also desirous of bringing us into maturity, both spiritually and emotionally. That takes time, because we need time to learn to make the right choices. He loves us enough to take the months and years necessary to not only heal our wounds, but also build our character. Without growth of character we will get wounded again.”

“The pastoral labours of the archbishop of Constantinople provoked and gradually united against him two sorts of enemies; the aspiring clergy, who envied his success, and the obstinate sinners, who were offended by his reproofs. When Chrysostom thundered from the pulpit of St. Sophia against the degeneracy of the Christians, his shafts were spent among the crowd, without wounding or even marking the character of any individual.”

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“When the mind once allows a doubt to gain entrance, the value of deeds performed grow less, their character changes, we forget the past and dread the future.”

Mind Character Past Values Grows Forget Doubt Gains Deeds Dread Entrances Forget The Past Character Change

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Jules Verne (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Jules Verne (Illustrated)

“As I said just now, the world has gone past me. I don't blame it; but I no longer understand it. Tradesmen are not the same as they used to be, apprentices are not the same, business is not the same, business commodities are not the same. Seven-eighths of my stock is old-fashioned. I am an old-fashioned man in an old-fashioned shop, in a street that is not the same as I remember it. I have fallen behind the time, and am too old to catch it again.”

Source: Charles Dickens's works. Charles Dickens ed. [18 vols. of a 21 vol. set. Wanting A child's history of England; Christmas stories; The mystery of Edwin Drood].

“The Bible is forbidding when you start to read it. The language is odd. The stories start and stop herkily-jerkily. The characters behave in inexplicable ways. It takes a little bit of time to get into the rhythm of the book. I found reading the first 15 chapters of Genesis very very difficult. Once I got past there, I loved reading, and found it very easy. When you get used to the Bible, it becomes thrilling to read (like any great book - I just had exactly the same experience with the Odyssey).”

Way Firsts Littles Book Character Stories Past Used Reading Found Language Easy Bits Difficult Little Bit Rhythm Odd Behave Chapters Thrilling Genesis Great Book Inexplicable Odyssey

Author:David Plotz

“My remembrance of the past is a novel I am constantly recomposing; and it would not be a historical novel, but sheer fiction, if the material events which mark and ballast my career had not their public dates and characters scientifically discoverable.”

Ifs Character Past Fiction Careers Novel Events Materials Mark Historical Sheer Remembrance Historical Novels Ballast

Book:The Essential Santayana: Selected Writings

Source: The Essential Santayana: Selected Writings

“I'm beginning to believe that Killer Illiteracy ought to rank near heart disease and cancer as one of the leading causes of deathamong Americans. What you don't know can indeed hurt you, and so those who can neither read nor write lead miserable lives, like Richard Wright's character, Bigger Thomas, born dead with no past or future.”

Source: Writin' is fightin': thirty-seven years of boxing on paper