- Ideas
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- Nov 07, 2020
Past Quotes
Looking back to understand what comes next.
This collection of past quotes includes a mid-20th-century physicist's assessment of the atomic-age power balance between Europe and the Anglo-Saxon powers, alongside a separate scientific note on how measurement affects what can be known about earlier moments. Both sit alongside a simpler idea: building your future apart from your past. Related themes appear in our Truth quotes.
- Last Updated on May 30, 2021
- Future
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- Nov 07, 2020
Look at the United States today. We have made mistakes in the past. We have had shortcomings. We shall make mistakes in the future and fall short of our own best hopes.
- Nothing
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- Nov 07, 2020
The present contains nothing more than the past, and what is found in the effect was already in the cause.
- Itself
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- Nov 07, 2020
In reality, the past is preserved by itself automatically.
- Future
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- Nov 07, 2020
The real enemies of our life are the 'oughts' and the 'ifs.' They pull us backward into the unalterable past and forward into the unpredictable future. But real life takes place in the here and now.
- Community
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- Nov 07, 2020
Isolated decisions, however well-founded they might seem to the individual, and national go-it-alone moves must belong to the past. They should not be the 21st-century method of choice, particularly because the consequences of the European community's actions must often be carried collectively.
- Matter
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- Nov 07, 2020
Solitary decisions, no matter how well-founded they may appear to individuals, must belong to the past - along with national, unilateralist action.
- History
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- Nov 07, 2020
I think the history and the past we have is just an energy we've built up to do what we do now.
- Memories
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- Nov 07, 2020
The present moment is changing so fast that we often do not notice its existence at all. Every moment of mind is like a series of pictures passing through a projector. Some of the pictures come from sense impressions. Others come from memories of past experiences or from fantasies of the future.
- Man
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- Nov 07, 2020
In Plains, I saw Jimmy Carter as he really is - a nice, decent man... in terms of compassionate contribution to society, he certainly has proven to be our best past president.
- Impress
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- Nov 07, 2020
If coming events are said to cast their shadows before, past events cannot fall to leave their impress behind them.
- Checking
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- Nov 07, 2020
It is, then, by those shadows of the hoary Past and their fantastic silhouettes on the external screen of every religion and philosophy, that we can, by checking them as we go along, and comparing them, trace out finally the body that produced them.
- Nothing
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- Nov 07, 2020
We could imagine nothing pleasanter than to spend all of our lives digging for relics of the past.
- Look
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- Nov 07, 2020
We have all examined our past critically and are very much aware of even the unpleasant things. Now, we need to look at what we plan to do with the lessons we have learned from the past.
- Others
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- Nov 07, 2020
Well, there have been periods in the past when prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand were at each others' throats publicly and frequently. That's not productive at all.
- Nov 07, 2020