Our Past Quotes

• In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.

  Alex Haley

  Inspirational, Family, Meaningful

  "Traits of a Healthy Family" by Dolores Curran, (p. 199), 1985.

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• We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Wise, Wisdom, Future

  George Bernard Shaw (2007). “Back to Methuselah”, p.315, 1st World Publishing

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• Keep your life in a positive perspective. We are not defined by our pasts

  Ray J

  Past, Perspective, Defined

  11 Copy quote

• Today is a new day. Your future does not equal your past.

  Michael Hyatt

  Past, New Day, Doe

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• Our past may explain why we're suffering but we must not use it as an excuse to stay in bondage.

  Joyce Meyer

  Past, Suffering, Use

  Joyce Meyer (2008). “The Power of Being Positive: Enjoying God Forever”, p.19, Hachette UK

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  Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future.

  Lewis B. Smedes

  Broken Heart, Forgiveness, Heartbroken

  "Healing by Degrees" by Jean-Paul Bedard, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 1, 2014.

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• You are not defined by your past. You are prepared by your past.

  Joel Osteen

  Letting Go, Past, Prepared

  Twitter post from Jul 03, 2015

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• Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.

  Cormac McCarthy

  Time, Real, Healing

  Cormac McCarthy (2012). “All the Pretty Horses”, p.139, Pan Macmillan

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• Praises for our past triumphs are as feathers to a dead bird.

  Paul Eldridge

  Past, Bird, Triumph

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• May the dreams of your past be the reality of your future.

  Jimi Hendrix

  Wise, Dream, Past

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• We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it.

  Rick Warren

  Change, Past, Growth

  Twitter post from Oct 15, 2010

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• Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory.

  Lewis B. Smedes

  Forgiveness, Memories, Healing

  "Healing by Degrees" by Jean-Paul Bedard, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 1, 2014.

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• The past is our definition. We may strive with good reason to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it. But we will escape it only by adding something better to it.

  Wendell Berry

  Inspirational, Wise, Memories

  Wendell Berry (2011). “Standing by Words”, p.14, Counterpoint Press

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• We are all here for some special reason. Stop being a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future.

  Robin Sharma

  Life, Positive, Time

  Robin Sharma (2016). “The Robin Sharma Pack”, p.214, Jaico Publishing House

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• 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

  Inspirational, Change, Happiness

  71 Copy quote

• If we do not honor our past, we lose our future. If we destroy our roots, we cannot grow.

  Friedensreich Hundertwasser

  Past, Roots, Honor

  63 Copy quote

• So rather than denying or stuffing your past, go ahead and look at it, but without judgment. Look at it, express it, admit it, acknowledge it, accept it, and move on. In other words, let your past become something that is simply a matter of fact. That's all. Express your disappointment, your regret, your anger, and then LET IT GO! If you don't, you will continue to draw to you the very events that you are still resenting or regretting.

  Lynn Grabhorn

  Disappointment, Regret, Moving

  31 Copy quote

• You are a success when you have made friends with your past, are focused on the present, and are optimistic about your future

  Zig Ziglar

  Inspirational, Positive, Success

  FaceBook post by Zig Ziglar from Aug 14, 2014

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• People never leave, we are always here in our past and future lives.

  Paulo Coelho

  Past, People, Future Life

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• We need the courage to learn from our past and not live in it.

  Sharon Salzberg

  Buddhist, Past, Needs

  FaceBook post by Sharon Salzberg from Sep 10, 2012

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• Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes. Moralists had, as a rule, regarded it as a mode of warning, had claimed for it a certain ethical efficacy in the formation of character, had praised it as something that taught us what to follow and showed us what to avoid. But there was no motive power in experience. It was as little of an active cause as conscience itself. All that it really demonstrated was that our future would be the same as our past, and that the sin we had done once, and with loathing, we would do many times, and with joy.

  Oscar Wilde

  Mistake, Character, Past

  Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Penny Dreadfuls: Tales of Horror: Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Picture of Dorian Gray”, p.719, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• Much as we wish, not one of us can bring back yesterday or shape tomorrow. Only today is ours, and it will not be ours for long, and once it is gone it will never in all time be ours again. Thou only knowest what it holds in store for us, yet even we know something of what it will hold. The chance to speak the truth, to show mercy, to ease another’s burden. The chance to resist evil, to remember all the good times and good people of our past, to be brave, to be strong, to be glad.

  Frederick Buechner

  Strong, Past, Yesterday

  Frederick Buechner (1981). “The hungering dark”

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• It seems we're not only uninformed about our present, we're ignorant of our past.

  Adora Svitak

  Past, Ignorant, Uninformed

  "Do We Treat History Like a Dead Language?" by Adora Svitak, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 28, 2011.

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• Our scars make us know that our past was for real

  Jane Austen

  Real, Past, Scar

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• The sad part about our past is that religions, ironically enough, are responsible for creating the most destructive idea that has ever been visited upon the human race: the idea that there is such a thing as 'better.'

  Neale Donald Walsch

  Past, Race, Ideas

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