Retrospect Quotes

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  One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.

  Sigmund Freud

  Inspirational, Positive, Happiness

  Sigmund Freud, Ernst L. Freud (1960). “Letters of Sigmund Freud”, p.258, Courier Corporation

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• There are many things we only see clearly in retrospect.

  Haruki Murakami

  Haruki Murakami (2011). “Kafka On The Shore”, p.43, Random House

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• Destiny is a name often given in retrospect to choices that had dramatic consequences.

  J. K. Rowling

  Strong Women, Destiny, Names

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• Perspective will come in retrospect.

  Melody Beattie

  Perspective

  Melody Beattie (2003). “The Language of Letting Go: A Meditation Book and Journal for Daily Reflections”, Hazelden Publishing

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• Most people muddled through events and only in retrospect realized their significance.

  Kate Atkinson

  People, Events, Significance

  Kate Atkinson (2013). “Life After Life”, p.412, Random House

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• No endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect; if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect.

  Edward Teller

  Simple, Perspective, Worthwhile

  Edward Teller (1981). “The Pursuit of Simplicity”, Pepperdine Press

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• Often a retrospect delights the mind.

  Dante Alighieri

  Mind, Delight

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• Everything is funnier in retrospect, funnier and prettier and cooler. You can laugh at anything from far enough away.

  Chuck Palahniuk

  Life, Laughing, Inspire

  Chuck Palahniuk (2004). “Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories”, NY Books

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• Revolutions are something you see only in retrospect.

  Alan Greenspan

  Revolution

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• When we recall the past, we usually find that it is the simplest things - not the great occasions - that in retrospect give off the greatest glow of happiness.

  Bob Hope

  Inspirational, Happiness, Laughter

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• It is the mark of a good action that it appears inevitable in retrospect.

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  Life, Action, Mark

  Robert Louis Stevenson (2014). “Memories, Portraits, Essays and Records (Annotated Edition)”, p.506, Jazzybee Verlag

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• Righteousness is easy in retrospect.

  Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

  Integrity, Ethics, Easy

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• Until one looks back on one's own past one fails to realise what an extraordinary view of the world a child has.

  Agatha Christie

  Children, Past, Views

  Agatha Christie (1991). “Agatha Christie: An Autobiography”, Berkley Publishing Group

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• I am not good at noticing when I'm happy, except in retrospect. My gift, or fatal flaw, is for nostalgia. I have sometimes been accused of demanding perfection, of rejecting heart's desires as soon as I get close enough that the mysterious impressionistic gloss disperses into plain solid dots, but the truth is less simplistic than that. I know very well that perfection is made up of frayed, off-struck mundanities. I suppose you could say my real weakness is a kind of long-sightedness: usually it is only at a distance, and much too late, that I can see the pattern.

  Tana French

  Distance, Real, Heart

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• We write to taste life twice, in the moment, and in retrospection.

  Anais Nin

  Love, Writing, Heart

  "Woman as Writer" by Jeannette L. Webber and Joan Grumman, (p. 38), 1978.

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• One of the experiences of prayer is that it seems that nothing happens. But when you start with it and look back over a long period of prayer, you suddenly realize that something has happened. What is most close, most intimate, most present, often cannot be experienced directly but only with a certain distance. When I think that I am only distracted, just wasting my time, something is happening too Immediate for knowing, understanding, and experiencing. Only in retrospect do I realize that something very important has taken place.

  Henri Nouwen

  Prayer, Distance, Taken

  Henri J. M. Nouwen (2017). “You are the Beloved: Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living”, Hachette UK

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• I have no desire to suffer twice, in reality and then in retrospect.

  Sophocles

  Reality, Suffering, Desire

  Sophocles (1958). “The Oedipus plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone”, Signet

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• So much of our time is spent in preparation, so much in routine, and so much in retrospect, that the amount of each person's genius is confined to a very few hours.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Time, Preparation, Routine

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• Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.

  Paul Theroux

  Inspirational, Funny, Travel

  Observer, October 07, 1979.

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• The past in retrospect holds manifold disenchantments, failures and even tragedies; and yet the worse may be forgotten and the best held fast.

  William Robertson Nicoll

  Past, Tragedy, May

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• Destiny is not something that happens all at once-it's something that happens only in retrospect.

  John Green

  Destiny, Happens

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• Life is not only meant to be appreciated in retrospect ... There is something each day to embrace and cherish.

  Dieter F. Uchtdorf

  Mother, Each Day, Appreciated

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• One often sees a call only in retrospect. This too is God's design. God often reinforces our faith after we trust him, not before.

  Ravi Zacharias

  Trust, Faith, God

  Twitter post from Nov 06, 2015

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• Evil is obvious only in retrospect.

  Gloria Steinem

  Government, Evil, Obvious

  Gloria Steinem (2012). “Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions”, p.480, Open Road Media

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• Everything looks more beautiful in retrospect.

  Michelle Monaghan

  Beautiful, Looks

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