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The Past Quotes

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The Past Quotes

“Of course we live in dreams and by dreams, and even in a disciplined spiritual life, in some ways especially there, it is hard to distinguish dream from reality. In ordinary human affairs humble common sense comes to one's aid. For most people common sense is moral sense. But you seem to have deliberately excluded this modest source of light. Ask yourself, what really happened between whom all those years ago? You've made it into a story, and stories are false.”

RealityDreamsMemoryStoryIris MurdochThe PastThe Sea The SeaMeta
Book:The Sea, The Sea
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“Unngh,' the Minotaur says. What he means is that every past is littered and scarred. What he means is that the present moment is the only moment that pulses, that breathes. What he means is that he himself is capable of great tenderness but has also done great harm. The Minotaur knows that sometimes mercy requires expedience. Haste. Sometimes it can't be about how much a thing hurts.”

MercyHarmTendernessHasteThe PastThe Minotaur
Book:The Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet Time
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“I am seeking to rescue the poor stockinger, the Luddite cropper, the “obsolete” hand-loom weaver, the “utopian” artisan, and even the deluded follower of Joanna Southcott, from the enormous condescension of posterity. Their crafts and traditions may have been dying. Their hostility to the new industrialism may have been backward-looking. Their communitarian ideals may have been fantasies. Their insurrectionary conspiracies may have been foolhardy. But they lived through these times of acute social disturbance, and we did not. Their aspirations were valid in terms of their own experience…”

HistoryThe PastSocial History
Book:THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH WORKING CLASS
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“What if I had made different choices from the start? What if I had stuck around to watch another year of seasons spin here in Oxford, staying to see the daffodils bloom or to wander beneath the privet tunnel hand in hand with Fisher? What if we had kept right on kissing until the naked ladies emerged near the Osage orange? What if I had lingered long enough to see cape jasmine arrive, her voluptuous white bundles an aromatic call for summer love? Or even longer, when the spider lilies burst open in the fall and the yellow autumn light fell low among missy roots? What if I had stayed through winter, forming snow angels with my lover beneath the icy cedar boughs? What if I had not let fear defeat me after Fisher knelt before me in my mother's backyard garden, ring in his hand and happy-ever-after in his heart?”

SeasonsFlowersThe PastNatures BeautyWhat IfsChildhood Love
Book:Perennials
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“I’d wish it were easier to not allow other people’s pasts to create my own present.”

LifePastLife LessonsQuotesLife QuotesLife PhilosophyLife And LivingQuotes To Live ByLife And DeathPresent MomentQuotes About LifePresentLiving LifeNowLiving Life To The FullestThe PastQuotes Of The DayLiving In The PresentLiving In The PastLiving In The MomentLife Philosophy InspirationalQuotes Of LifeQuotes And SayingLiving In The NowThe Past Never EndsThe Past Looking To The Future
Book:Freak
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“It follows that the one thing we should not do to the men and women of past time, and particularly if they ghost through to us as larger than life, is to take them out of their historical contexts. To do so is to run the risk of turning them into monsters, whom we can denounce for our (frequently political) motives—an insidious game, because we are condemning in their make-up that which is likely to belong to a whole social world, the world that helped to fashion them and that is deviously reflected or distorted in them. Censure of this sort is the work of petty moralists and propagandists, not historians (p. 5).”

HistoryMemoryThe PastCensureContextHistoriansPropagandistsMoralists
Book:Fire in the City: Savonarola and the Struggle for the Soul of Renaissance Florence
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“A few months ago, I found some of her journals." "Oh, that's dope." His voice lightened with happiness. "Yeah, she was really funny. And she loved cooking all types of food, but baking was her first love." "Do you bake?" August scoffed. "Me? No, I'm no good in the kitchen." "Maybe you should. To honor her memory." He paused for a second. When he spoke, his voice was soft. "Maybe I should.”

InspiredThe PastMemories Of MotherHonoring
Book:A Legend in the Baking
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“"Not only will the masses forever sing your praises for saving them from Titan rule, but they will associate you with feelings of warmth and safety and pleasure and all things good. It will be beautiful, Zeus. I promise." Technically, she had delivered on that promise by creating the most beautiful, most compelling, most delightful beings the world had ever seen. She'd gifted them with the ability to bring joy to everyone, both god and mortal.”

PromiseGoddessThe PastZeusPeace MakingMusesMnemosyne
Book:Bemused
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“We must realize the truth around our past and within it and how not being willing to question the status quo has led to horrific deeds to victims in the past.”

TruthHistoryDiscriminationStatus QuoThe PastQuestioning Beliefs
Book:Revenants, Retroviruses, and Religion: How Viruses and Disease Created Cultural Mythology and Shaped Religious Perspectives
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“The past may or may not be a foreign country. It may morph or lie still, but its capital is always Regret, and what flushes through it is the grand canal of unfledged desires that feed into an archipelago of tiny might-have-beens that never really happened but aren't unreal for not happening and might still happen though we fear they never will. And I thought of Ole Brit holding back so much, as we all do when we look back to see that the roads we've left behind or not taken have all but vanished. Regret is how we hope to back into our real lives once we find the will, the blind drive and courage, to trade in the life we're given for the life that bears our name and ours only. Regret is how we look forward to things we've long lost yet never really had. Regret is hope without conviction, I said. We're torn between regret, which is the price to pay for things not done, and remorse, which is the cost for having done them. Between one and the other, time plays all its cozy little tricks.”

TimePhilosophicalLooking BackMight Have BeenEloquentThe PastAndre AcimanEnigma VariationsRegret Remorse
Book:Enigma Variations
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“Diamonds are held under tons and tons of pressure, extremely high temperatures of fire and shuffled under shifting of tectonic plates, for a long, long time! Yet when they come out from there and are put on display for their beauty; does anybody stop to evaluate the diamond based upon all the shit it's been through and say "Remember that disgusting hole it used to be in? I bet it was hell in there!" No, people don't remember where a diamond has come from; they just see the beauty of it now. But it wouldn't have become so beautiful, you know, if not for all of that! So why should we look at other people, or at ourselves and evaluate them/ourselves based upon their/our pasts? Shouldn't we forget that? And only see the beauty that is in front of our eyes? Whatever it was, it made you beautiful! And that is what matters!”

The PastDiamondsForgetting The PastOur PastsSeeing The Beauty NowThe Beauty In Front Of You
Author:C. JoyBell C.
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“If there were past misdeeds, I do not believe we should nag or repeat them, never mind throw them in someone’s face. If they sincerely apologized and we genuinely forgave them, we must move on. Learn from mistakes, but move on. If we bring them up and toss them at the offender, we may not have actually forgiven them, even if we claim we have.”

LearningForgivenessMistakesApologyForgiveThe PastNaggingMisdeedsApologies
Book:The Bimbo Has Brains: And Other Freaky Facts
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“God has a way of picking a “nobody” and turning their world upside down, in order to create a “somebody” that will remove the obstacles they encountered out of the pathway for others.”

LifeCharacterGodStoriesPastHappinessJoyValuesFaithChoicesHopeBeliefUnderstandingChristChallengesLeadershipFreedomCompassionCareersCourageFatePlansDreamsIntegrityFutureEmpathyTestsScriptsObstaclesGoalsActivismMistakesRedemptionActivistMoralsHomelessLife PurposeTalentsPathwaysNovelsCharacter BuildingThe PastStormsGod S PlanGleeAdventuresSignsNobodyStaying PositiveMental DisordersSomebodyLife MissionsNo CoincidencesRescuersMessesMakes SenseNo Ordinary Moments
Author:Shannon L. Alder
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“It didn’t hurt me. Not “hurt”. Hurt is a four letter word. It’s short, almost cute sounding. Aawwww, did that hurt? No. It didn’t hurt. Destroyed, Obliterated, Desecrated, Annihilated, Demolished, Shattered, or Demoralised maybe… But no. It didn’t hurt me. It didn’t “hurt” me at all.”

LoveFeelingsQuotesHurtMemoriesLossSadnessSadHeartbreakAngerQuoteAngryMemoryLove Quotes And SayingsBreakupBroken HeartLove QuoteLost LoveUnrequited LoveHeartbrokenFeelings And EmotionsHeartbreakingHurt FeelingsBreakupsThe PastBreakup QuotesUnrequitedLoss Of LoveMemories QuotesMemory QuoteAnger QuotesSad QuoteHeartbroken QuotesBreakup QuoteRanata SuzukiRanata Suzuki QuoteHeartbroken QuoteAnger Quote
Author:Ranata Suzuki
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“What if you were wrong? What if everything you ever believed was a lie? What if you missed your opportunity because you didn't know your worth? What if you settled on familiar, but God was trying to give you something better? What if you decided not to go backwards, but forward? What if doing what you have never done before was the answer to everything that didn't make sense? What if the answer wasn't to be found in words, but in action? What if you found the courage to do what you really wanted to do and doing it changed your whole life?”

LoveLifeChoicesChangeDreamsGoalsFamiliarDecisionsContemplationCareerQuestionsPonderingThe PastCrossroadsLife GoalsPathsDirectionsLife MissionsEnvisionTurning Your Life Around
Author:Shannon L. Alder
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“…the sad part is, that I will probably end up loving you without you for much longer than I loved you when I knew you. Some people might find that strange. But the truth of it is that the amount of love you feel for someone and the impact they have on you as a person, is in no way relative to the amount of time you have known them.”

LoveFeelingsBeautifulTimeQuotesLostMemoriesLossLove QuotesGriefSadnessSadHeartbreakQuoteMemoryLove Quotes And SayingsGrievingBreakupBroken HeartGrief And LossLove QuoteLost LoveUnrequited LoveTime QuotesLove QuotationsHeartbrokenRemindersDeep ThoughtsSad QuotesWithout YouFeelings And EmotionsGrief QuotesMissing SomeoneDeep LoveTime PassingThe PastBreakup QuotesUnrequitedHeartbreak QuotesLoss Of LoveSecret LoveMemories QuotesMemory QuoteBreak UpsLoss QuotesFeelings Of LoveBeautiful QuoteI Miss YouTime QuoteLost Love QuotesReminiscingSad QuoteMissing You QuotesReminiscenceHeartbroken QuotesThe One That Got AwayBreakup QuoteRanata SuzukiRanata Suzuki QuoteBreak Up QuoteLoss QuoteDeep Love QuotesThe Only OneReminisceAlways Yours
Author:Ranata Suzuki
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