Past is having happened or existed before now. Profoundly inspirational past quotes will make you look at life differently and help you live a meaningful life.
If you’re searching for uplifting quotes about change and empowering attitude quotes that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of significant recovery quotes, popular time quotes and encouraging push yourself quotes.
Famous Past Quotes
When we think we have been hurt by someone in the past, we build up defenses to protect ourselves from being hurt in the future. Gerald G. Jampolsky
I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain. Frank Herbert
Never look back unless you are planning to go that way. Henry David Thoreau
One of the best ways to make yourself happy in the present is to recall happy times from the past. Photos are a great memory prompt, and because we tend to take photos of happy occasions, they weight our memories to the good. Gretchen Rubin
The past can’t hurt you anymore, not unless you let it. Alan Moore
We cannot change our past. We can not change the fact that people act in a certain way. We can not change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. Charles R. Swindoll
Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future. Oscar Wilde
I have great respect for the past. If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going. I have respect for the past, but I’m a person of the moment. I’m here, and I do my best to be completely centered at the place I’m at, then I go forward to the next place. Maya Angelou
I use memories, but I will not allow memories to use me Deepak Chopra.
Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones. Thich Nhat Hanh
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. John F. Kennedy
For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today? And whenever the answer has been No for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Steve Jobs
The past speaks to us in a thousand voices, warning and comforting, animating and stirring to action. Felix Adler
The power of youth is the common wealth for the entire world. The faces of young people are the faces of our past, our present and our future. No segment in the society can match with the power, idealism, enthusiasm and courage of the young people. Kailash Satyarthi
I don’t know whether you can look at your past and find, woven like the hidden symbols on a treasure map, the path that will point to your final destination. Jodi Picoult
Modern science says The sun is the past, the earth is the present, the moon is the future. From an incandescent mass we have originated, and into a frozen mass we shall turn. Merciless is the law of nature, and rapidly and irresistibly we are drawn to our doom. Nikola Tesla
We crucify ourselves between two thieves regret for yesterday and fear of tomorrow. Fulton Oursler
Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them. They stay focused on their past successes rather than their past failures, and on the next action steps they need to take to get them closer to the fulfillment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them. Jack Canfield
I have memories but only a fool stores his past in the future. David Gerrold
You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space. Johnny Cash
We are products of our past, but we don’t have to be prisoners of it. Rick Warren
To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past I extend my sincere thoughts and deep sympathy. With the benefit of historical hindsight we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all. Queen Elizabeth II
You realize that our mistrust of the future makes it hard to give up the past. Chuck Palahniuk
See, when you drive home today, you’ve got a big windshield on the front of your car. And you’ve got a little bitty rearview mirror. And the reason the windshield is so large and the rearview mirror is so small is because what’s happened in your past is not near as important as what’s in your future. Joel Osteen
To design the future effectively, you must first let go of your past. Charles J. Givens
Have you not noticed that love is silence? It may be while holding the hand of another, or looking lovingly at a child, or taking in the beauty of an evening. Love has no past or future, and so it is with this extraordinary state of silence. Jiddu Krishnamurti
Renew, release, let go. Yesterday’s gone. There’s nothing you can do to bring it back. Steve Maraboli
The future doesn’t exist. The only thing that exists is now and our memory of what happened in the past. But because we invented the idea of a future, we’re the only animal that realized we can affect the future by what we do today. David Suzuki
The past has no power over the present moment. Eckhart Tolle
No matter what has happened to you in the past or what is going on in your life right now, it has no power to keep you from having an amazingly good future if you will walk by faith in God. God loves you! He wants you to live with victory over sin so you can possess His promises for your life today! Joyce Meyer
Everything and everyone that you hate is engraved upon your heart; if you want to let go of something, if you want to forget, you cannot hate. C. JoyBell C
Faith is not simply a patience that passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather, it is a spirit that bears things with resignations, yes, but above all, with blazing, serene hope. Corazon Aquino
Why do you cling to pain? There is nothing you can do about the wrongs of yesterday. It is not yours to judge. Leo Buscaglia
I believe that every single one of us, celebrity or not, has a responsibility to get involved in trying to make a difference in the world. Our generation faces many challenges, some of which were passed on to us by the past generations, but it’s up to us to find solutions today so that we don’t keep passing our problems on. Shakira
The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life. What is it you would let go of today? Mary Manin Morrissey
What matters is to live in the present, live now, for every moment is now. It is your thoughts and acts of the moment that create your future. The outline of your future path already exists, for you created its pattern by your past. Sai Baba
The past is a stepping stone, not a millstone. Robert Plant
I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don’t have complete emotions about the present, only about the past. Virginia Woolf
I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is. Alan Watts
Learn from the past, but don’t live there. Build on what you know so that you don’t repeat mistakes. Resolve to learn something new every day. Because every 24 hours, you have the opportunity to have the best day of your company’s life. Harvey Mackay
Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Mary Manin Morrissey
In raising children, we need to continuously keep in mind how we can best create the most favorable environment for their imitative behavior. Everything done in the past regarding imitation must become more and more conscious and more and more consciously connected with the future. Rudolf Steiner
One should learn from the past, but one should not live in the past. My concern is to look to the future, learn from the past, and deal with the present. George Fernandes
I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes, so live not in your yesterdays, no just for tomorrow, but in the here and now. Keep moving and forget the post mortems and remember, no one can get the jump on the future. Carl Sandburg
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
Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain. The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life. What is it you would let go of today? Mary Manin Morrissey
You can’t undo the past but you can certainly not repeat it. Bruce Willis
This past year has been something else it’s opened my eyes to many things and many people. It’s had its ups and downs and ins and outs. And I believe we’ve all been able to take something from that and grow in our own imparticular ways. We’ve over come obstacles, and set in motion opportunities that can change our own individual lives. Kyle Schmid
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it without a sense of ironic futility. Errol Morris
To admit regret is to understand that we are fallible that there are powers beyond us. To admit regret is to lose control not only of a difficult past but of the very story we tell about our present. To admit sincere and abiding regret is one of our greatest but unspoken contemporary sins. David Whyte
Some of the best lessons are learned from past mistakes, the error of the past is the wisdom of the future. Dale Turner
Time and space always change, but there is something which is eternal and changeless. For example, the world and time, past or future, nothing exists for us in sleep. But we exist. Let us try to find out that which is changeless and which always exists. Ramana Maharshi
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. Albert Einstein
Inner peace can be reached only when we practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is letting go of the past, and is therefore the means for correcting our misperceptions. Gerald Jampolsky
The lessons of the past should steer us towards ensuring lasting legacies for generations yet to be born. Hun Sen
We don’t know what’s around the corner and we must do everything to ensure we get our country’s debts down, building our resilience so we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past. Liz Truss
The past is behind, learn from it. The future is ahead, prepare for it. The present is here, live it. Thomas S. Monson
You know, failure hurts. Any kind of failure stings. If you live in the sting, you will undoubtedly fail. My way of getting past the sting is to say no, I’m just not going to let this get me down. Sonia Sotomayor
The secret of rulership is to combine a belief in one’s own infallibility with a power to learn from past mistakes. George Orwell
I hope you enjoy reading this collection of powerful past quotes. Please let me know which one you like most.
