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THE PAST



So what if I've had a rough past. I can still create a wonderful future, starting now. Once I realize that life is a road to be travelled, and not a destination to be arrived at, I will begin to see my past experiences as merely towns along the road of life...places which I have explored, and in the process, had a lot of fun, as well as learned many lessons. I felt very happy in some towns and quite sad and depressed in others. I must say, however, that overall, it's been an exciting adventure. The past can be a valuable part of my personal growth if I focus on the answers to two simple questions: Did I have fun? What did I learn?




"As lousy as things are now, tomorrow they will be somebody's good old days." (Gerald Barzan)

"Yesterday is a canceled check: Forget it. Tomorrow is a promissory note: Don't count on it. Today is ready cash: Use it!" (Edwin C. Bliss)

"May you look back on the past with as much pleasure as you look forward to the future." (Paul Dickson)

"The past always looks better than it was because it isn't here." (Finley Peter Dunne)

"To design the future effectively, you must first let go of your past." (Charles J. Givens)

"Look to the past for guidance into the future." (Robert Jacob Goodkin)

"The past, though it cannot be relived, can always be repaired." (John La Farge)

"To be able to look back upon one's past life with satisfaction is to live twice." (Marcus Valerius Martial)

"What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road." (William Least Heat Moon)

"Don't brood on the past, but don't forget it either." (Thomas H. Raddal)

"I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes, so live not in your yesterdays, not 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)

"The beauty of the past is that it is the past. The beauty of the now is to know it. The beauty of the future is to see where one is going." (Source Unknown)

"Live out of your imagination, not your history." (Stephen Covey)

"All experience is an arch to build on." (Henry Brooks Adams)

"The point of power is always in the present." (Louise L. Hay)

"You can never plan the future by the past." (Edmund Burke)

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

"Finish each day and be done with it...You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

"Our history is not our destiny." (Alan Cohen)

"Now that we know we can't change the past we can realize that at this very moment we have the wonderful opportunity to begin anew! If you want something there is simply no better time than right now to pursue it!" (Josh Hinds)

"It would add much to human happiness, if an art could be taught of forgetting all of which the remembrance is at once useless and afflictive, that the mind might perform its function without encumbrance, and the past might no longer encroach upon the present." (Samuel Johnson)

"It is not how much you know about life but how you live your life that counts. Those who can avoid mistakes by observing the mistakes of others are most apt to keep free from sorrow. In a world full of uncertainties, the record of what has gone before--human experience--is as sure and reliable as anything of which we know." (Ray Lyman Wilbur)

"Yesterday ended last night. Every day is a new beginning. Learn the skill of forgetting. And move on." (Norman Vincent Peale)

"In order to be utterly happy the only thing necessary is to refrain from comparing this moment with other moments in the past, which I often did not fully enjoy because I was comparing them with other moments of the future." (Andre Gide)

"The more extensive a man's knowledge of what has been done, the greater will be his power of knowing what to do." (Benjamin Disraeli)

"A fellow doesn't last long on what he has done. He has to keep on delivering." (Elbert Hubbard)

"When guilt rears its ugly head confront it, discuss it and let it go. The past is over. It is time to ask what can we do right, not what did we do wrong. Forgive yourself and move on. Have the courage to reach out for help." (Bernie S. Siegel)

"Things without all remedy should be without regard; what's done is done." (William Shakespeare)

"One can never change the past, only the hold it has on you, and while nothing in your life is reversible, you can reverse it nevertheless." (Merle Shain)

"As you grow older, you'll find the only things you regret are the things you didn't do.) (Zachary Scott)

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (George Santayana)

"There's no better way to waste time in life than to dwell on the past. You should learn from the past with as much objectivity as possible, so that you can modify your future actions -- and then move on." (Bonnie Dunbar)

"Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it is only good for wallowing in." (Katherine Mansfield)

"I can change. I can live out my imagination instead of my memory. I can tie myself to my limitless potential instead of my limiting past." (Stephen Covey)

"The Moving Finger writes; and having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a word of it." (Omar Khayyam)

"Today is the first day of the rest of your life." (Charles Dederich)

"The real enemies of life are the 'oughts' and 'ifs.' They pull us backwards into the unalterable past and forward into the unpredictable future. But real life takes place in the here and now. God is always in the moment, be that moment hard or easy, joyful or painful." (Henri Nouwen)